here we go, again
by XRaiderV1
Summary: "I am here to ask you, what if you could change the fates, of those who inhabit those alternate realities, what if, you had the team, the resources, and the ability to travel to where you are needed, to change those fates for the better?" -Q
1. disclaimers and notes

:Disclaimer:

A crossover fic, series include: stargate sg1/stargate atlantis/buffy the vampire slayer/angel/halo/Terminator the Sarah Conner chronicles/Teen Titans/Evangelion/Metroid Prime 2 & 3/Transformers(2007)/startrek and an original online rpg character of my own creation.

I do not own Eva, Tenchi, Ironman, or robotech, never have, never will, only the character(s) and scenarios I myself create.

See other disclaimers in the Stargate saga page1.

:End Disclaimer:

:Disclaimer and misc:

I own nothing from the above named series, except any Original characters and scenarios.

Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, is copyrighted of Bungie.

Story picks up right after the season 10 series finale of Star Gate SG-1.

Except for critical plot points, or to reflect, say, a character death, in no way shape or form are the recent stargate movies involved in this tale.

As for the shows Buffy the vampire slayer, and Angel, this story picks up at the end of each series, and can and will take some liberties character wise, as its not known who ultimately survived(at the end of angel, at least).

As stated above, I own nothing from the above named series, except any original characters and scenarios, they are copyrighted to their respective trademark and copyright holders.

:End disclaimer:

:Notice:

If you wish to use my character, Raider, or wish to base a story off of this one, please ask first, chances are, that I will say yes.

As a rule of thumb regardless, it is polite to ask first.

Also, this is not, I repeat, not a self insert, the character Raider is based off of

my own RP character.

:End notice:

:Notice:

The Character Hikari/Spirit used with permission from Mike313

The Character Rei/Silver Surfer used with permission from OrionPax09

:End Notice:

:Friendly warning:

There will be varying degrees of OOC in this tale, if you cant deal, the back button's up top, don't let it hit you on the backside on the way out.

:End Friendly warning:

:Advisory:

Due to the nature of the story, it is normal to, say, start in 1999 and then suddenly wind up in the year 2015, as is the case with the evangelion saga

:End Advisory:

-"text"- denotes radio/phone traffic

'_Telepathy'_

_Thoughts/dreams_

[suit computer]

"_mind reading"_

-(AI speech)-

Please note, AI speech is usually only used when the AI is currently in the armor, and is reserved mostly for when the AI is talking to the Spartan, or someone who's likewise using armor.

:Note:

all page numbering is at the bottom of each chapter

Pages are listed in this format: page 1-10.

:End note:


	2. 1 to 10

Here we go, Again:

-THE STARGATE SAGA-

Here we go, again, Chapter 1:

-Not again-

Saturday, august 22, 2008

1520 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

Another typical day, how often have people said that, and suddenly had the hand of fate, Murphy himself, toss in a monkey wrench into the works?

On this date, we find several people have uttered those 3 damming words. They shall remain nameless, of course, lest unspeakable things happen.

"Unscheduled offworld activation, I repeat, unscheduled offworld activation" Sgt Harrimon yelled into the base PA.

Within seconds, all the usual suspects are present in the control room.

"What have we got?" General Hank Landrey asks.

"Unknown, no IDC, no attempt at communication, and, the Iris refuses to engage"

"Daniel, dear, is it supposed to do that?" A curious Vala asks.

"Um, no, that's usually a bad sign" Daniel replies, pushing his glasses back up.

At that moment, the gate locks in the eighth chevron, which, of course, gets everyone's attention.

"Ok, long distance caller" Col. Mitchell comments offhandedly.

"Indeed" is the response from Teal'c.

The gate engages, and, out steps something straight out of a video game, a spartan.

The spartan, cloaks himself, intent on causing as little disruption as possible.

The TER scanners come up, thus, rendering that point moot, as the TER scanning beams interfered with his cloak.

Inside the Mjolnir armor:

"Drop cloak, visor, scan mode"

"Better get our two heavy hitters to the gate room" Gen. Landrey says, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Think Faith and Illyria can handle a spartan?" Col. Mitchell asks, surprising everyone with the unexpected ID of the visitor.

"And you know what that is, how?" Daniel asks.

"Halo 3, Xbox 360" is the simple reply.

The Spartan, meanwhile, just stands there, and finds himself confronted by two women, a Vampire slayer, and an ex Goddess, both of whom, have an impressive level of strength, to say the least.

Suddenly, over the gate room speakers:

"Drop your weapons, and place your hands behind your head"

The unknown spartan moves to comply, clearly uninterested in a potential fight, placing his rifle on the ground, along with his pistols and shotgun, however, he leaves his sword sheathed on his back, just as he moves to kneel on the ground, as instructed, an alarm goes off, a quick check in the gate room confirms its not anything related to the stargate.

"Ah hell" the heretofore silent spartan cries, as he quickly rips something off his back.

"You, in the booth up there, make this ring do its thing, this device, its on a build up to detonation!"

In the control room:

"Uh, guys, I think, maybe we better dial the gate" Daniel says, observing the spartan backing away from said gate.

"Sergeant, dial the gate" Gen. Landrey orders.

The gate, begins spinning its inner ring, as the rapid dialer program is engaged, and, as the gate activates, the spartan rears his arm back, and chucks the device into the still unstable event horizon, which vaporizes the device before it can detonate.

"Now that that's over with, big guy, move, the head honchos want a word with you" a slightly shaken Faith says.

Illyria, strangely, is silent, as she observes the nameless spartan, while they escort him to a detention cell.

Hours later:

"Well, here we go, again, seems like we just cant stay out of trouble, eh, Gemini?" the spartan asks.

A glowing half inch big spheroid suddenly projects a hologram, which replies "Certainly seems that way, Raider"

"At least they followed my advice on the sword".

"Curious, you converse with a projection, as if it were alive, why?" Illyria asks, announcing her presence.

"She, is a sentient AI, and her name is Gemini, she is my only friend, and, my name's Raider"

Illyria nods at this, and motioning, replies "Come, Landrey wants a word with you"

Raider, gets up and follows Illyria, and Gemini, floats along, next to Raider, and two minutes later, they enter the briefing room, which, overlooks the stargate.

Raider takes this all in in an instant, taking note of escape routes, personnel, weapons.

"I'm General Hank Landrey, you must be our guest from earlier"

Turning, Raider notes several others with the general.

"I'm Raider, my apologies for earlier, the transdrive module on my armor malfunctioned, in more ways than one"

"I'm curious, how did you know that would happen, when the gate was activated?" Daniel asks.

"In the alternate reality I arrived here from, I lost a pistol to the event horizon from one of those 'stargates', I believe it's called, and had I not acted, that device would have detonated with the force of a small nuclear device"

"I see, how did you get here?" Mitchell asks.

"The Transdrive, it interacts with the wormhole produced by a stargate, how, I'm unsure, it's supposed to shift between alternate realities, and it seems yet again, I'm, how do you say, 'neck deep in it once again'?" Raider replies.

Raider pauses, looking around.

"Dammit, I told her not to wander off"

"Who?" Vala asks.

"My AI, Gemini, small, blue spheroid, bout half an inch big?"

"Your sentient projection, I believe you refer to" Illyria replies.

"Yes, and, if I know her, she's probably getting herself into trouble right about now"

Suddenly, the phone near the door rings, Mitchell answers it, and a curious look comes over his face.

"Well, I believe our little blue 'pixie' is something of an archeology buff"

"Let me guess, she's in my office, reading god only knows what" Daniel replies.

"Not again, dammit" Raider replies, smacking himself on his forehead.

"Indeed" was all Teal'c had to say.

Meanwhile, in Daniel's office:

"Wow, never knew the Egyptians were that nasty" Gemini remarked to herself, as her holoform stood there, reading one of the notebooks left on Daniel's desk.

"Gemini, what did I tell you about wandering off?" a stern, slightly reproachful voice asked from the doorway.

"Um, curiosity killed the cat?" Gemini replied.

"very good, my dear, now, why don't you go and run a diagnostic on the armor, I'd like to know if anything else got screwed up on that little jaunt" Raider replied, standing there in the doorway, Illyria and Faith off to the side.

'_I know what you're doing, you are transparent in your attempts __to read thoughts'_

This brought Raider up short, with a look of shock on his face, he turned towards Illyria.

"Did you just-" he started to say.

'_Yes, I had long given up hope of finding another who can communicate like this' _Illyria thought to Raider.

"Yo, blue, big guy, anyone home? You two gonna space out all day on me?" Faith said, waving her hands in front of both Illyria and Raider.

'_The loud one is most irritating today' _Illyria thought.

'_I don't know, I kinda think she's growing on me, at least she hasn't made any passes at me yet, I got enough of that in the least alternate reality I visited' _Raider thought back.

'_To borrow a line from the brooding one, Indeed' _Illyria thought back.

This earned a chuckle out of Raider.

"I like you, blue, I think we're gonna get along great" he replied.

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Faith asked, clearly annoyed.

Both Raider and Illyria turned to her at the same instant, and replied at the exact same instant.

"Telepathy"

And with that, they turned, and walked away, leaving a thoroughly stunned slayer standing in the corridor.

"I believe I have an understanding of what you meant by that being funny" Illyria commented.

"Yeah, the look on Lehane's face was priceless" Raider replied.

The two walked back to the cell that Raider was calling home at the moment, and, Illyria went and reported to General Landrey.

"I believe him to be of no threat to us, I perceived a great suffering on his part, his past has not been the most pleasant, I do believe he would be an asset to this world's defense" Illyria commented, summing up her perceptions of Raider.

"Also, I do believe he has telepathic abilities, we managed to hold a non verbal conversation for a total of 5 minutes, much to the aggravation on the part of the slayer, however, it does not appear as if this telepathy extends to any but those with like ability" she concluded.

"And this AI of his?" Landrey asked.

"A mischievous cyber intelligence, with an abundance of curiosity with regards to her surroundings, she would likewise be an asset, an effective one at that, if Col. Carter's own report is to be believed" Illyria finished.

"Hmm, anything else?"

"Yes, I sensed a concern for his armor, namely the consequences of if one who is not augmented were to wear it, though, I also sense he has a great physical strength, equal to or superior to that of the slayer, possibly on a par with that of my own"

"I can also sense a latent mystical source within him" Illyria commented.

"Well, I believe we've found a 3rd team member for our first SG Force recon team, go break the news to him and Faith, and sign his armor out, lets see how he stacks up in a few training missions" Landrey replied.

Monday, august 24, 2008

0935 hours, PX-3552, Joint force training op.

-SNAFU-

"Yeah, nice easy training op, go off world, train with some Tok'ra, some Jaffa, get some down time in, and 3 guesses what happens, it goes to total shit!" Raider comments, dodging an energy blast from an Ori foot soldier.

"I believe I once heard General O'Niell remark upon a similar situation, the word he used to describe it, SNAFU" Illyria replies, as an energy blast bounces harmlessly off her signature red leather-like armor.

"Blue, how in the hell?" Faith asks.

"You Forget, I too possess enhanced senses, slayer" was the rather inspired come back.

"Um, ladies, perhaps we can save the sniping for after we get ourselves out of this mess?" Raider remarks, popping up, and unloading a few dozen rounds from his refitted MA5G assault rifle, right into a cluster of Ori ground troops, taking them out, with lethal precision.

"Incoming transmission over SGC frequency" Gemini announced.

-"This is SG-6, we're pinned down just off the northern pass, need cover and extract"-

"Well, ladies, shall we go introduce ourselves?" Raider asked, with a clear hint of amusement in his voice.

"I believe we should" Illyria replied, picking up on the mental play by play Raider was sending her.

Raider slung his rifle, and hefted the two rocket launchers, and bolted, Illyria laying down suppression fire, and Faith, ranging ahead and providing cover fire.

"Gemini, tell them help is on the way" Raider said, as he dodged a few stray staff blasts.

-"SG-6, this is Recon 1, help is on the way, sit tight"-

-Recon 1, SG-6, copy that, hurry, we have wounded"-

-"SG-6, Recon 1, understood"-

"Slayer, we've got wounded to extract, Blue, need you to move on our six, cover us" Raider spoke into his radio.

-"Tel chak, Recon 1, need you to dial the gate, evac to delta site, set up a holding action at the gate"-

-"Copy that Gemini"-

Raider noticed multiple contacts on his motion tracker, things were going south, fast.

-"Raider, heads up, additional enemy forces inbound, lets get SG-6 then get the hell out of dodge"-

-"Slayer, agreed, big guy"-

-"Blue, I agree"-

As Raider came upon SG-6's position, he noted one man down, and another, with minor injuries.

Raider went over to SG-6's team leader.

"Lets get your men out of here, Colonel Mainlin" he spoke, noting his own teammates approach.

At that moment, an energy bolt comes sailing from out of nowhere, and slams into the suddenly fully charged shield of one very pissed off spartan.

Spinning, drawing his rifle, and firing a burst, he took down a trio of Ori soldiers.

"I hate being shot in the back, shield or no shield" he growled, as he bent down, and grabbed hold of the wounded team member.

-"Recon 1, Tel chak, we've got Ori fighters inbound, headed your way, fast"-

-"Tel chak, Gemini, Copy that"-

"We've got trouble, incoming, and fast, Raider" Gemini said, as she adjusted the shield's power levels.

"Great, more good news" he replied, as he set the wounded man down, and unshipped one of the shoulder fired missile launchers, and tossed it to Slayer, who, had a particularly mischievous grin on her face, one that sent chills up and down Raider's spine.

Unshipping the second launcher, Raider noted the enemy fighters coming in from the north east, and setting up for the shot, he saw Slayer do likewise, while Blue covered their backs.

Seeing a trio of Ori fighters coming right at them, and releasing what appeared to be a devastating volley of energy blasts, the only thing Raider had to say on the matter was _'SHIT!'_, fortunately or unfortunately (you decide), his mental reaction broadcast itself to Blue(aka Illyria) by way of their telepathic link, and both Raider and Slayer(aka Faith) felt her stiffen, all this while Raider summoned up his reserves and called forth his best defense.

"Barrier Shield!" he cried, dropping the launcher, and thrusting both hands skyward, and a shimmering protective dome appeared.

The energy blasts struck, and the shield held, though, it appeared to take quite a bit out of Raider, as after the Ori fighters shot past, he collapsed to one knee, all the while maintaining the protective barrier.

"Stupid damn amateur assumption!, of course the rules are different in this reality!" he verbally berated himself, while tensing up, as he saw the enemy fighters circling around for another pass.

"Raider, I don't think you'll be able to hold the barrier up this time, it's taking a lot out of you" Gemini announced, by way of his helmet's internal speakers.

He felt a hand on his right shoulder, and turned, and saw Illyria, who said "Let me help", and she raised her right arm, and pointedly looked at him.

"Right, this may sting a bit" he replied, as he allowed some of his energy flow into her.

Her eyes glowed blue, and the shield strengthened, just as another trio of blasts struck the shield.

"Well, you two, let me show you how a friend of mine did things in sunnydale" Slayer cried out, as she hefted both launchers, and stepped through the shield, and drew a bead on two of the fighters.

"Convert this!" she cried, firing both launchers at once, and somehow managing to stay upright, for the recoil off a single launcher, let alone two, is a tad bit strong, even for a slayer.

To say that shock reigned at that moment would have been an understatement, particularly from the standpoints of two very unlucky, and now quite dead, Ori fighter pilots.

The third, wisely, chose discretion over certain suicide, and turned and fled.

Dropping the shield, Raider knelt there for a minute, trying to recover from the expenditure of energy, Illyria, a former goddess, who was more used to such aftereffects, likewise looked a bit careworn.

"Lets make tracks back to the gate Big guy, Blue" was slayer's vote, which the other two, not to mention the whole of SG-6, whole heartedly agreed with.

"Faith, I do believe I owe you $100, that shield move took quite a bit out of me" Raider commented, as he unshipped his MA5G, checked the ammo counter, and slapped a fresh magazine in.

Needless to say, after that little event, the rest of the trek back to the gate, and later on, back to Earth, was quite uneventful, save for an increased sense of concern from Illyria, for her teammate, Raider.

Needless to say, the former goddess, the blue ice queen, as Faith would later refer to her as, felt her formerly ice cold heart melt a bit, as she thought about what could have inspired such a reaction to Raider's earlier mental exclamation.

**:Page 1-10:**


	3. 11 to 20

As they stepped through the gate, and arrived back at the SGC, Faith was already several moves ahead, as they say.

First thing on her list, was to quite literally strong arm her teammate to the infirmary.

Second, was to dig out her 'black book of numbers', and call up an old ally, one Willow Rosenberg.

Third, introductions and explanations.

Fourth, and most importantly, pray it didn't all blow up in their collective faces.

Coming out of her contemplative daze, she saw Raider looking like he was headed for the base gym, so she moved to intercept him, getting Illyria's attention in the process, and further increasing Illyria's own concern as well.

"Nuh uh, big guy, you're going to the infirmary if I have to beat you senseless" Faith commented, latching onto the armored spartan's right arm, and steering him to the right.

"I feel concern for what happened earlier, you are my team mate, as such, I must help watch out for you" Illyria remarked, grabbing Raider's left arm, and further steering him to the medical center.

You see, it was no big secret that the spartan had a strong dislike for doctors, he'd had some nasty experiences years before, at the hands of those claiming to be doctors, so, it was with some effort, that the two mystically empowered women quite literally manhandled the taciturn spartan to a full physical with the base' chief physician, Dr. Carolyn Lam.

"Ok, what's going on? I see 3 people in my infirmary, obviously uninjured, spill it" Dr. Lam snapped, already not liking how the day has been going.

"Ok, doc, big guy here pulled a rabbit out of his backside, putting up some kind of shield, when it looked like we were gonna get deep fried by a bunch of religious nuts in fighters, we already know the shields on his armor cant pull that off, so, given the fact he practically collapsed afterwards tells me something's off" Faith explained, in a manner very much unlike her, which immediately caught Carolyn's interest.

"When the Ori fighter made a second pass, I became aware he would not be able to keep the shield up, and lent him my strength, I am concerned for him" Illyria added.

"Yeah, she channeled some of his and her own power, her eyes glowed blue" Faith added.

At this point, everyone's favorite mischievous blue pixie, Gemini, chose to make an appearance, projecting her holoform.

"Dr. Lam, normally, knowing of his strong aversion to doctors, I'd let it slide, but, given everything that's happened within the last 12 hours, I feel it necessary to seek your opinion, and if need be, treatment for my friend and partner" The AI explained.

"Well, alright, you heard them, ditch the armor, lets get you checked out" Dr. Lam said, as she gathered several items she'd need.

"Hey, Doc, while you're doing this, I'm gonna go have a word with the boss, and try and get an outside expert in on this, she may be able to shed some light where traditional medicine cant go" Faith said, getting up, and walking out the door.

"Why me, what did I ever do to deserve this?!" Raider lamented, as he finished removing the heavier parts of the suit, finally shucking the gel bearing layer, and laying back down on the bed, his ever present sword resting on his lap, clad in a pair of form fitting sweatpants, and a form fitting t-shirt.

Monday, august 24, 2008

1535 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Usual problems-

"You did what?!" A frankly upset Gen. Landry asked, stunned at what the brunette Slayer had said.

"Look, something's obviously off here, boss man, I'm just looking out for a teammate, and, Willow is the most qualified when it comes to the area of Magix, if anyone can tell us what's wrong with the big guy's abilities, it's her" Faith finished explaining.

"Well, from what you've told me, she's already on her way, I'll inform base security they're to escort her in, in the meantime, lets go introduce our new friend to some people he may occasionally work with in the future" Landry replied.

He dialed base security, informing them of the impending arrival of their guest, and then went with Faith and proceeded to round up the members of SG-1.

Back in the infirmary:

"Well, medically, except for a slight case of dehydration, and some fatigue, there isnt anything wrong with you, then again, considering your physiology, I'd be worried if you caught so much as a common cold" Dr. Lam explained.

"Thanks Doc" Raider replied, rather stiffly.

It didn't escape Carolyn's notice that the young man in front of her had some rather severe issues with doctors in general, whatever had happened to him in the past, to cause him to distrust doctors to such an extent, must have been bad indeed.

"I know you don't particularly like doctors, so, whenever you're in here, if you co-operate, I'll see about moving things along with a minimum of discomfort" she said, hoping he'd at least relax a little, which, after a few minutes of thinking it over, he did.

"Gemini, perhaps, until Faith's friend gets here, you should run a few checks on the armor?" Raider asked.

"Of course, while I'm at it, I'll download the data from the mission recorders, and the tactical data we gathered, this should be enough to keep those white coats in area 51 busy for a few months" she replied, with that glint in her holographic eye that told Raider she would be as good as her word.

At that moment, as Gemini's holoform faded, Gen Landry along with 5 others entered the infirmary.

"General!" Raider said, as he went to stand at attention, a quick gesture from Landry, and a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder from Illyria immediately set him at ease.

"With all the confusion the past few days, add to that, that sudden joint forces exercise, I never did get around to introducing you to some people you may have occasion to work with" He paused, then introduced each person.

"The tall fella here's Teal'c, a Jaffa, and one hell of a friend, the blond is Col. Samantha Carter, she's a genius in most respects, the guy with glasses is Dr. Daniel Jackson, a civilian archeologist and field consultant, the brunette is Col. Cameron Mitchell, team leader of SG-1, and the woman with black hair is Vala Mal Doran, an ex thief and former goa'uld host" he indicated each person he named.

"They make up SG-1, SG-1 this is, as you well recall, The spartan from the other day, Raider, I'd introduce his AI and friend, Gemini, but, she's obviously otherwise occupied" he explained.

"General, the after action reports, scan data and mission recorder downloads have been uploaded, and await your review, and Doc says I'm otherwise fit, so, I'm waiting on that outside consultant at the moment, sir" Raider replied, all business, but, he inclined his head in acknowledgement of SG-1's presence.

"Um, guys, is it me, or does anyone else think he doesn't like us?" Daniel asks.

"He does not trust those who he has not gone into battle with yet, I believe the phrase is 'its nothing personal'" Illyria replies.

"Indeed, this I can understand" Teal'c replies.

Suddenly, Raider bolts upright, his head snapping to the right.

Sensing something's not right, Illyria tries to hear over the telepathic link she shares with Raider, but, instead of the normal buzz that is his thoughts, she hears silence.

"What is it?" she asks.

Saying nothing in reply, he begins pulling his armor back on, and in 2 minutes, is fully clad once again in his Mjolnir powered armor.

Turning, he notes SG-1 is still in the room.

"I suggest you all gear up", turning to Illyria he goes to say something but she cuts him off.

"I know, I will go get Faith" she says, walking off.

"Something you wanna tell me, son?" Landry asks.

"Something's happened to Faith's friend, I sense she's in danger, I need to get to her location, fast" he replies.

"Sir, the Odyssey hasn't yet departed orbit, fastest way to where he wants to go would be to use the asgard transporter" Mitchell adds.

"Do it, SG-1, Recon 1, you have a go" he replies.

Mitchell presses his earpiece, and speaks

"Odyssey, Mitchell, lock on, and beam us up" Mitchell spoke into his comm earpiece, just as Faith and Illyria return.

"Col. Davidson here, standby for transport" came the reply.

In a flash of white light, they were beamed aboard.

Turning to Col. Mitchell,

"Mitchell, I'll need 3 sniper rifles, fitted with standard scopes" Raider said.

He then walked over to the transport console, and asked "Can you manually target a specific location and to within how many feet?"

"I can get you to within 3 feet of your target, why?" the tech asked.

"Show me how to operate the manual targeting system" was the response.

Turning to Faith,

"Faith, come here, I need you to open your mind, I need a sense of what Your friend's mind is like, we need to be quick, I've got that bad feeling again" he said, as Col. Mitchell returned with the requested weaponry.

"3 sniper rifles, one mag each, one reload mag on the stock" he commented.

"Hand one to Illyria, I'll take one, Faith gets the other, Mitchell, your team's on snatch and grab, speaking of which, Faith, tell us what your friend looks like" he explained, just as they got a lock.

"She's a redhead, about 5 foot 6, her name's Willow, usually travels with a 6 foot brunette who's named Xander" Faith replied.

At that moment, Gemini spoke up, "alright, set coms to channel 6, encryption set 1, I've adjusted the targeting on the transport, the snipers will be on a series of buildings I've detected in the area, care of the ships scanners, and the extract team will be here in this alley" she indicated on the map she pulled up on the wall monitor.

"Um, do I even wanna know how you just bypassed Odyssey's firewalls?" Raider asked.

"Hey, those firewalls are practically ancient compared to what I can do" the AI replied.

"We good to go?" Col. Mitchell asked.

"Lets start this party" Faith replied, earning a slightly reproachful look from Raider.

"Beam us down" was his reply, and as before, a flash of white light, and they were gone.

Meanwhile, in front of a Diner in Colorado, Xander Harris was busy trying to get himself and his best friend, Willow Rosenberg, out of what fast turned into a nasty situation.

A group of 16 men, dressed in black fatigues, had earlier asked Willow to 'come quietly', when informed she had some place to be, they didn't take too kindly to that, hence, why Xander now had both of his USP .45's out.

"I'd really like to know who we pissed off now, cause, far as I'm concerned, saying it's a good day ISNT a phrase that should invoke Murphy's law!" a clearly pissed off Xander Growled.

"Xand, I haven't a clue on that one" Willow replied, very much ready to whip out a few spells should she need to.

Suddenly, a series of sharp reports echo.

_Crack!_

_Crack!_

_Crack!_

_Crack!_

And 4 of their would be assailants go down, and just as suddenly, a rapid fire noise, that Xander subconsciously Identified as that belonging to a P90 was heard, reacting purely on instinct, he turns, and dives to the ground, pushing Willow down, and shielding her with his own body.

"Are you both ok?" someone asked.

With reflexes that would make a green beret proud, Xander had both .45's up and pointed.

"Whoa, easy there, I'm Col. Cameron Mitchell, I believe you know someone named Faith? She sends her regards" Col. Mitchell said, while holding his hands in a gesture that meant no harm.

"Here, she wanted a word with you" he said, holding out an earpiece.

Keeping one of his guns on the Col., Xander took the pro-offered earpiece, and put it on.

"Faith?" he inquired.

"Well, looks like ya made it, stud" she said, by way of greeting.

"Go with the good Colonel, we'll see you at the base, and give my regards to Will" she said.

Up on the roof, Raider smiled inside his helmet, he already liked those two, and the young man impressed the hell out of him with his handling of the situation.

"Lets pack it in, and head back, Odyssey, 10 to transport, to the sgc" he spoke into his radio.

"Odyssey, copy that Recon 1" came the reply.

Monday, august 24, 2008

1720 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Magix weakened-

"Miss Rosenberg, Mr Harris, welcome to the SGC, I'm General Landry, Miss Lehane speaks very highly of you both, please, follow me" General Landry said.

"Thank you, please, call me Xander" Xander replied, as they followed the general, Willow, for some reason, was oddly silent, which was very unlike her, and it had Xander concerned.

They followed him to the infirmary, just in time to see a 6 foot 6 fully armored person sit, and pull off his helmet, and Xander would be damned if the guy didn't look like something straight out of halo 3.

"This is the young man Ms Lehane spoke of, he goes by the name Raider" the General said, and he turned and walked off.

"Hello, I was told you would be able to help figure out why drawing on my powers in this reality drains me so much" Raider said, standing up, and holding his hand out to the stunned red headed wicca.

"Wow, Xander, isn't he a spartan, from that game you and the slayers seem to like so much?" Willow asked, shaking the pro offered hand, then, walking around the spartan, sizing him up, her senses, magical and otherwise fully in play.

"Yeah, he is, but how? Why?" Xander asked.

"I'm from an alternate reality, no idea how I wound up here instead of where I was supposed to, either" Raider replied.

"No, you're exactly where you're supposed to be, if I'm reading your aura right, I think you were destined to be here, actually" Willow replied, now running a hand over an armored shoulder plate, marveling at the sheer strength the man in the armor possessed, both harnessed, and yet to be realized.

Her eyes glowed white, as did her hands, and she set to work, and quickly determined several things, which she elaborated on.

"Well, I believe your body and magix are slowly acclimating to their new environment, and should slowly, as they are used more, return to full strength, but, you've lost the ability to direct your life force as a weapon and defense, and, somehow, you've forged not one but two links to two people whose essence.. wait, Xander, go get Faith and Illyria" she turned and said to a clearly concerned Xander.

As Xander went to go get them, Willow continued.

"You should know, you wont ever be able to return home, the second that being summoned you, your destiny was forever altered, you see, he was a higher power, even higher than the powers that be, and don't ask what that means, no one has any idea how to answer that" she commented, as she went to examine his sword, which nearly caused Raider to panic.

"No! don't touch the sword, it'll zap you with a lethal charge if it doesn't deem you worthy" he explained.

At this, Xander returned, with Faith and Illyria in tow.

"Now, to see if I was right…" Willow muttered, her hands and eyes once more aglow.

"Goddess! You're linked!" she exclaimed, drawing blank stares from Raider, Faith, and Xander, and a rather curious stare from Illyria.

"You can hear his thoughts, and vice versa, am I right, Illyria?" Willow asked.

"Yes, it is, if I am correct, telepathy" the ex goddess replied.

Raider nodded his head in agreement.

"Faith?" Willow asked.

The slayer said nothing.

"Raider, can you hear her thoughts?" Willow asked.

"No, I believe she's blocking the link, which up until you asked, I was unaware of.

"Faith…unblock the link" Willow said, calling on her resolve face.

"Fine, and I am NOT being difficult!" she replied, looking right at Illyria.

"And that was?" Willow asked, looking at Raider.

"Telepathy" he deadpanned.

Resuming her examination, she froze, and exclaimed in shock "you've got not one but two celestial orbs? But how? Your body should have exploded from the sheer amount of energy alone"

"One, has the capacity to regenerate, not just my body but any damage my armor incurs in battle, as well as supply me with energy as needed, I can, provided the raw elements needed are present, create just about whatever I have need of, for example, the silverware from my dinner tray" he picked up the fork, knife, and spoon, and focusing slightly, the 3 utensils seemingly flowed into a ball, then reshaped into a rather ornate looking dagger.

"Until 6 months ago, the one orb would act of its own accord with regards to the energy and regeneration, then I learned to exert conscious control over it, the other orb, can absorb attacks made of dark energy and convert it into light energy" Raider explained.

"I can use it to heal others, but, I have yet to figure out other ways to harness the light energy, so, I usually allow it to slowly and harmlessly disperse into the surrounding environment" Raider concluded, and Willow seemed satisfied with this explanation.

At this, Dr. Lam came back into the room.

"What's the verdict?" she asked.

"His body and powers just need time to acclimate, and the more he uses them, the faster they acclimate, and the bigger his eventual reserves will get" Willow explained, and as she was turning back to Raider, her eyes caught on something on his sheathed sword.

"Please, unsheathed your blade, and hold it so I may examine it" she asked.

"Something wrong, Wills?" a heretofore silent Xander asked.

"I think, I may have just solved that riddle that is that prophecy I found the other day" she explained, now examining several symbols she'd found engraved into the blade of Raider's sword.

"Someone wanna clue the rest of the class?" a confused Faith asked, and even Illyria looked interested.

"I'll need to research this a bit, to be sure, but, if I'm right, Faith, you, Illyria, and Raider are gonna be major players in things to come" and with that, Willow turned, and bade the 3 farewell.

Over the next two months or so, things were quiet, and the SGC was able to enjoy its first significant period of downtime since the Ori first launched their crusade.

During this time, Raider had come to consider earth his adopted home planet, and felt comfortable releasing some of the technology behind the Mjolnir, and even assisted with starting the design process for a suit for Faith, Raider knew she was envious of his armor, and, as Illyria was basically immune to all but the strongest weaponry, she had no need of a suit, though, Raider insisted on developing a basic model for her anyway.

It was just after they put the finishing touches on the two suits, and got them ready for field testing, that things started heating up again.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

1720 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Interesting developments-

Now, it should be noted, that it's not an easy task, to completely shock a slayer into stunned confusion, but, Faith had to admit, Illyria sure pulled it off.

It started with a question.

How to approach the spartan, and seek romantic involvement with said spartan.

Put bluntly like that, its no wonder Faith now found herself hopelessly confused.

"Um, blue, you ever try asking the big lug?" Faith asked.

"I…am uncertain…I do not even understand what I am feeling, whenever we are in the same room…my heart, it skips, I feel a funny feeling in my stomach" Illyria replied.

**:Page 11-20:**


	4. 21 to 30

"You ever consider doing just what Faith said, and ask?" Raider commented, announcing his presence, and in so doing, actually managing to slightly startle the usually calm, collected Illyria.

"I am not deaf, in either sense, nor blind, but, had I made any advances, they would have been brushed aside, you needed to realize it for yourself first" Raider commented, walking to the coffee maker, and pouring himself a cup.

"So, let me get this straight, if you'd made a pass at her before she realized she felt something for you, that it would have meant little, and, you wanted her to figure it out for herself?" Faith asked.

"She is right, it would have meant nothing before I discovered it on my own, I thank you, my…friends, I believe the sentiment is" Illyria replied.

"Well, if you wish, I think the first step, is to get to know one another, yes, even you Faith, what, you think I didn't know you were interested?" Raider commented, causing the slayer to blush, and Illyria to simply nod her head, as if the topic of conversation were the most obvious thing on the planet.

"Come on, I have enhanced vision, hearing, smell, etc, pretty much just like you, I guess you were in the same boat as Illyria, and without even knowing it" Raider replied, stirring in a few tablespoonfuls of sugar and powdered creamer.

"Illyria, why don't you go suit up, and then we can finish the testing on both suits" Raider commented, taking a long sip of his coffee.

Just then, an Airman comes up to raider.

"Sir, fax from England for the 3 of you" he says, handing Raider the fax, and he walks off.

Raider started reading:

-From: WCI-Rosenberg, W.

-To: Recon 1, SGC.

Found mention of a prophecy, referenced symbols on sword, found match, Giles believes it to be accurate, the 3 of you have just become major players.

See below for scanned page bearing the prophecy:

{}When the warrior from another realm arrives, he shall take up arms alongside two warriors imbued with essences of old, thus completes the new guardian trio, and whence the evil one threatens that bond which is stronger than the mightiest weapon, two of the trinity shall wage a terrible battle upon the evil one, and thus, shall liberate the third of the trinity, just before this, from another realm comes two more warriors.

Whence the evil that is origin moves on the warriors of earth, a higher destiny awaits the guardian trio, now five in number, at the city of the ancients, the hidden plague upon pegasus shall know certain defeat, at the cost of a new evil as yet unknown, yet, known this evil is, for he is of the past. He stalks the stars, seeking the downfall of the descendants of the ancients. The guardian five shall rise up from the ashes of certain defeat, and will defeat the dark one.{}

[I wouldn't hold much stock in this one, as according to the codex, the conditions for this prophecy were already fulfilled centuries ago- Giles].

Stay safe, work together, and do not loose hope, we will do what we can, as always.

End Message/

p.s Buffy sends her regards.

Raider finished reading.

"Well, things just went 7 different kinds of strange" Raider replied, handing the fax to Faith.

"Well, nothing we can do about it now, so, lets finish the test run of this armor, as much as I like the feel of the hydrostatic gel caressing my body, it gets real old fast with the armor plate weighing the suit down in its unpowered state" Faith commented dryly, a comment Raider could readily agree with.

During the past month, as they'd been choosing armor parts from the vast catalogue Raider's suit contained, Faith had opted for a modular defense type, with boosted speed and agility, and augmented defenses.

Course, they'd tried talking Illyria into choosing parts for a suit of her own, but she'd refused, as Raider knew she would, so, he left his tablet, with the armor catalogue program open, in plain sight in his quarters, and she'd spotted it when she'd entered to retrieve a set of tools he needed to perform a diagnostic on his suit.

Suffice it to say, she'd quickly settled on a configuration that offered boosted speed and agility.

"Ok, inside the helmet is a bunch of switches, this one here, will activate the power generators, and start up the suit's computers" Raider explained.

It had taken all of two weeks to build the modular components of the suit, using nanite assemblers, or in other words, replicators, which, upon completion of their assigned tasks, had shut down, and disintegrated, as per the programming Gemini had loaded.

Still, they'd had to perform final assembly of certain parts themselves, as well as actually have Faith suit up.

One of the key differences in her suit, was that it did not have armor plate in every conceivable location, only where needed to bolster the armor's defensive protection, of course, if Faith deemed it needed, she could don additional plating.

As Faith put on the helmet, Gemini was busy monitoring the initial startup from a nearby terminal, ready to cut the suit's power at the first indication of a problem.

Needless to say, Gen Landry, and Col. Carter were present for this test, as was Dr. Lam, they'd asked the spartan why they couldn't put the suit technology into production, they were shocked by the answer, he'd simply uploaded several videos and left them to find out on their own.

The fact of the matter was, that without the required surgically implemented enhancements, only a slayer or, Illyria, could safely operate the Mjolnir without risk of injury or death.

He didn't bother to mention that the surgeries needed to implement the enhancements themselves had a high risk attached, and that out of so many candidates, only 25-35% survived the procedures unharmed.

Besides, as far as he could tell, no one possessed any of the materials required for the enhancements in any appreciable quantities.

Stepping back, Raider gave Faith the go ahead, and she powered up the armor.

For a minute, she just stood there, then she took a step, then another, soon, she was jogging in place.

This made Raider feel a certain sense of pride, seeing his teammate mastering the armor without any of the clumsiness or accidents that he and his fellow spartan 4's endured.

And then Illyria came back into the room, back flipping in, her own armor, a more utilitarian and stripped down version, fully assembled, and evidently in perfect working order, as evidenced by Faith chucking a small pinecone from the nearby forest at Illyria, at a speed only a slayer could attain, and watched it bounce harmlessly off the unusually strong shields of Illyria's 'light' recon Mjolnir.

"Ah, yes, the comedy aspect of a successful series of first activations" Raider sighed, drawing amused stares from the General, the Colonel, and of course, a chuckle from the doctor.

"Looks like both suits are a success" Gen Landry commented.

"What I'd like to know, is why'd Illyria go with such a basic version?" Col Carter asked.

"I already possess excellent defense, and agility, this merely augments the defense, and boosts my speed, without encumbering my agility, also, I have been told I have the perfect frame of someone suited for reconnaissance work, this suit merely helps to hone my skills in that regard" came the calm and contemplative reply from Illyria.

"Is it me, or are there little jewel looking things on her suit that appear to be glowing?" A curious Gen Landry asked.

"Correct, they are antigravity drives, however, they merely boost my speed and further enhance my agility" the ex goddess replied.

"I see, well, I admit, I'm impressed, not just with the suits, but with how easily Gemini was able to control the rather limited number of nanite assemblers she was given access to" Col Carter replied.

"I believe, the term is child's play" a smug looking Gemini replied.

"So, I hear you're working on some kind of energy based sword?" Col Carter asked, always interested in seeing a new piece of technology.

"It's not just a weapon, it can also heal, to what extent, I don't know, I'm still working out the specs, and the prototypes themselves keep changing to reflect those specs" Raider commented, looking at the diagnostic readouts from both suits, satisfied, he told his teammates to power them down, and take the evening off, as he felt they'd earned a night of time to themselves.

As he walked to his quarters/lab, Carter walked with him, intent on satisfying her curiosity.

"How's it powered?" she asked.

"The idea is it draws its power from the user, whether its raw untapped Magix, or elemental based power, though, based on my tests, very few have the potential to actually use this energy sword, which I've decided to call The Soul Blade, since its given function at any time is dependant on the user's state of mind and desired use" Raider replied, removing his latest prototype from a lockbox, and offering it for examination.

"Wow, its got just the right amount of weight, and it feels perfectly balanced" Carter replied, genuinely impressed.

"Well, seems I've finally nailed that issue with the design" was Raider's response.

Looking around, Carter could see quite a few prototype devices in various states, and on a workbench sat the left forearm wrist shield emitter from Raider's suit.

"Been tweaking it, I think I solved the software conflict that kept kicking the primary shield offline each time I go to use these" he commented.

"Well, it's late, and I've got a few reports to catch up on, please, keep me in the loop on some of these devices" Col Carter commented, before departing.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

1935 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Can we say 'oh shit!'?-

Raider sat there, on the mat, in the base gym, a selection of music Gemini had found for him on the internet playing softly in the background from his mp3 player, his eyes shut, his breathing relaxed, almost undetectable.

He'd been meditating quite regularly, since he'd been told he'd lost his psionic abilities, he knew they weren't naturally acquired, so, he had been trying to relearn how to tap into them naturally, and, so far, the results looked promising, he could now levitate both the small mp3 player, and the speaker set he'd plugged it into.

His other abilities were slowly gaining in strength, and while these things were good news, he had a big decision to make.

He felt strongly for both of the women on his team, so much so that he knew he'd soon ask them to marry him.

As a result, he wanted to give a portion of his two orbs to them, to help ensure their health and survival, but, mostly, as a romantic gesture, well, romantic for a spartan in his position, anyway.

But, there was a rather big risk, such a division of an orb's power, let alone two orbs, had never been attempted, sure, back in skix' dimension, he'd heard of orbs being split in two, but never thirds.

The risk was, that such an endeavor could well prove fatal, not just to him, but to Illyria and Faith, as well.

True, he'd only known them for just over 2 months now, but, he knew, he'd found the two women, who he knew, he would be happy to spend the rest of his life with.

As they say, true love is forever ignorant of the constraints of time, whether you knew someone for a day, or ten years, you just know.

"Hey, big guy, wanna go patrol on this fine frigid Colorado night?" Faith asked.

Raider couldn't help but crack a grin, she was getting better with her stealth, she'd nearly snuck up on him that time.

"Sure, I kinda wanna see if vamps can detect me through my armor's cloak, and, I got a certain surprise for you that I'm sure you'll like" Raider replied.

15 minutes later, they were suited up in their armor, and, not surprisingly, they spotted Illyria, clad in her armor, leaning against the wall, in front of the elevator, one foot propped on the wall, with a look that Raider coulda swore resembled smug satisfaction, probably at having successfully guessed the night's plan, and dressing accordingly, of course, it could always have been the telepathic link the 3 of them shared, that tipped her off, but, Raider wasn't gonna spill it if she wasn't.

They rode the lift in calm silence, and were not surprised at all to see Gen Landry waiting for them.

"I see you're all off, for what I assume is a routine patrol?" he asked.

"Yes sir, and, we're gonna put the new suits to the test, as well as see if optical cloaking can fool vamps" Raider replied.

"Stay safe, and keep these ladies safe as well, son" Landry replied, with a knowing smile.

As they walked off, Raider commented rather sarcastically "what, is everyone suddenly able to read my mind or something?".

"Nah, big guy, we're just not doing a good job of keeping this new relationship quiet" Faith commented.

"It is rather obvious, and has been, for some time, that we have all felt affection for one another, and, I for one, still have not gotten used to this feeling" Illyria replied.

-"You're not supposed to, it means you've truly got something special between the 3 of you, and you'd better not give it up without a fight, you 3 get me?"- Gemini commented over the suit's commlink to the base, of course, all 3 members of Recon 1 heard.

Suddenly, the motion trackers in all 3 suits started going off.

"Christ, my scope's lit up like a damn christmas tree" Faith commented, summing things up just perfectly, in Raider's opinion.

Raider felt Faith shiver in fear through the link.

"I know these, they're Turok-Han, strong, hard to kill, staking is pointless with them, take their heads off" Faith said, drawing a pair of custom made Tonfa blades.

"I wonder, if they're anything like the regular vamps you've described, will tracer rounds work?" Raider wondered aloud, unshipping his MA5G, taking aim, and firing a burst, the vampire burst into flames, and then dust.

"Guess it works, then" Faith replied.

"Enough talk, more killing the undead" Illyria replied, moving at speed, her strength combined with her suit's speed proving to be deadly, as single blows were enough to dust the vampires.

-"Alert, temporal displacement field detected, strongly recommend withdrawal"-

"Lets get out of here" Raider shouts, as a silver spheroid appears, the electrical discharges arc off of nearly everything in the area, and, more importantly, reduce the remaining Turok-Han to dust, as well as nailing the 3 armored warriors, causing their suit's shields to flare and shorting out their communications systems.

"Ok, where the hell are we?" a male voice shouts out, sounding every bit as exasperated as Raider felt.

"I don't know, we should be back in 2001, in LA" A feminine voice replies.

Taking a chance, and being the curious sort, Raider pokes his head around the corner of the building he'd taken shelter in, and sees a young teen male, and a young teen female, stark naked, trying to figure out where they are.

He has just one thought going through his brain, as the young woman spots him and drops into a combat stance and he voices it "here we go, again".

One alley over:

"Hey, blue, where's the big guy?" Faith asks, frowning, as her suit's radio seems to have been shorted out.

"I do not know, I cannot raise him on the radio, and he seems to be in some kind of battle, from what I can gather from the link" Illyria replies.

The two of them made their way back to where the displacement field had appeared, and spotted a scene, that had it not been deadly serious, would have had even the normally stoic Illyria laughing.

Raider was busy doing all he could to, apparently, avoid the blows the young woman was trying to land on him, and if the dent in his left shoulder plate was any indication, she packed one hell of a punch.

"Enough! You will cease your attempt to harm my life guide!" a clearly pissed off Illyria growled, charging headlong into the fray, and body checking the young woman, catching her off guard.

At this point, the young man was busy wrestling with Faith, and despite her slayer strength, the young man was holding his own.

Deciding ending this fast would be smart, Raider drew his sword, the lightning blade, and leveled it at the throat of the struggling young woman.

"Stop, or I'll end this, and not in a pleasant way, either" he growled.

Just then, a piercing scream rang out, and Raider turned, and was horrified to see some kind of demon, with a long sword, it had impaled Faith in the abdomen.

Before anyone could even blink, the young woman had ran straight for the demon, and snapped its neck, and gently laid Faith on the ground, taking stock of her injury.

Rushing over, Raider flipped on his scan visor, and knew it was bad, and the next words from the young woman next to him confirmed it.

"She has suffered a mortal wound, she will not survive"

Flashing through handsigns, Raider drew upon a long unused healing seal, and further augmented it with power from both orbs, and dumped a fair bit of energy from his long unused energy tablet into the seal and slammed his left hand, palm first, onto the wound, and started pumping energy into it.

For 5 minutes, Faith, was dead.

"Come on, Faith, you have to want this for it to work, fight, dammit, or are you gonna give up without a fight?".

Even as those words left his mouth, Raider could see the wound healing, and Faith opened her eyes, and Raider felt relief flooding through the link from Illyria, and gratitude from Faith.

Sitting down on a nearby bench, Raider extracted a pair of emergency blankets from his field kit, and handed them to the two teens.

Illyria, helped Faith to another bench, and sat down as well.

"So, what's your names, where are ya from, and miss, that's one hell of a punch you have" Raider asked.

"I'm John, John Conner, this is my girlfriend, Cameron Philips" the young man replied.

Suddenly, another demon, just like the one that nearly killed Faith, tries to kill Faith again, but, is stopped by Illyria, who, actually growls as she asks "Who sent you, why do you seek to kill the slayer, answer me!"

"I'm a hit demon, the Chinese triad put a contract on her, they say she killed some of their vampires tonight" he whimpered, in fear for his life.

"Give them a message, I, Raider, leader of Recon 1, wielder of the lightning blade, demands an audience, and they have one week to respond, or I'll bring the rain, now go!" Raider growls out, as Illyria releases the hit demon.

"So, a spartan from Halo 3, an ex goddess from a popular tv series, a slayer from the same series, and demons, I take it that's just about normal for where ever we are?" John asks sitting down next to the spartan.

"Yup, wouldn't have it any other way, kid" a once more conscious Faith says, grunting as she sits up, Illyria offering a hand.

"Curious, my scanners indicated you were clinically dead for 5 minutes, how are you alive?" Cameron asks.

"Simple, too stubborn to die, and, I've got an equally stubborn teammate and friend who wouldn't let me give up so easily" Faith replies, removing her helmet, and shaking loose her mane of brown hair.

-"…………………………repeat………are you alright?"- Gemini asked, finally managing to get communications back.

"We're fine, tell the general we've had an interesting night, and we're bringing in a pair of friends" Raider replied.

-"Copy that, I'm showing erratic vitals on Faith, is she ok? I still cant get her radio back up"- Gemini asked.

"Have Lam on standby to check Faith out, she's ok, but I want to play it safe" Raider replied.

"Hey, I can hear you, you know" Faith commented, tapping her head with her finger, referring to the link.

Suddenly, Cameron's head whips around.

"There's another Terminator nearby, we need to move, now" she comments, moving to help Illyria with a still badly shaken Faith, and Raider unships his rifle, and tosses it to John.

"Let me guess, just like the one in the game" he comments.

"Yup, only, its real, so, be careful, and here's 3 clips" Raider replies, handing John the spare clips.

-"You've got company, unknown hostile, on your six"- Gemini shouts.

Spinning, and drawing both M6D pistols, Raider spots a gorgeous blond making a beeline right for them, sensing something's off, he snaps through several scan visor modes, and immediately knows the blonde's a terminator.

"Go, I got this" Raider says, praying his cloak still works, as he engages it, and luckily it works, this causes the unknown terminator to pause, and look around as though scanning.

A series of rapid fire shots ring out, hitting the blonde terminator, and in a display that shocks Raider, the wounds flow closed.

Remembering a dvd movie Faith had brought in a few days ago, Raider knew he was dealing with a T-X, the most dangerous model terminator ever developed.

"Thor's hammer, second form!" he cries, letting loose a laser fine stream of lightning, which blasts the T-X off its feet.

He sees it get back up, and seeing the tell tale signs of a charging weapon, he reacts, dodging, and calling forth another of his elemental attacks.

**:Page 21-30:**


	5. 31 to 40

"Raikou, the lightning sphere!" he cries, charging in close, and slamming the churning sphere of compressed lightning right into the chest plate of the T-X, blowing a hole right through it.

"Oh shit!" Raider cries, only just remembering the onboard fusion core, and ramps his shields to max, as he bolts, and just barely escapes the blast, which still sends him flying, physically, and in more ways than one, as he hit's the ground, out cold.

"Are you injured?" Cameron asks, as Raider returned to the conscious world.

Seeing her crouched next to him, he looks around, and sees his whole team there.

"Yeah, but did anyone get the number of that mach truck that hit me?" he replies, making a rather piss poor attempt at a joke.

"The blast wave from an exploding fusion core" Cameron deadpanned.

Everyone looks at her in shock.

"Did she just make a joke?" John asks, somewhat in shock.

"Although I am still learning the concept of humor, I do believe she did" Illyria replied.

'_I feel like shit' _Raider thought.

'_Hey, at least you weren't dead for 5 minutes' _Faith thought back.

'_True, what say we head back, get our new friends cleared and checked out, and then get some sleep?' _Raider thought.

'_I agree, even I am feeling the effects of the night's events' _Illyria thought.

"Is it me, or did the 3 of them just space out for a second?" John asks.

"Yes, they did, their vitals seem normal though, so I wouldn't be concerned" Cameron replied.

"Telepathy" the 3 armor clad warriors replied, upon seeing the unasked question on the faces of John and Cameron.

1 hour later:

Having gotten Faith checked out at the base infirmary, and clearances issued for their two new friends, Raider had just laid down on his bed, and not even half an hour later, something else had come up.

"I swear, the universe just hates me today" he muttered, pulling on a set of fatigues.

Arriving at the conference room, he was immediately assaulted by a 5 foot 4 blonde, and she was packing some serious moves!

"Jesus, if I wanted my ass handed to me, I'd go looking for another few rounds with them damn uber vamps, or that cyborg from hell, now will ya stop trying to hit me?" Raider practically shouted in exasperation.

"Where is Faith?" the blonde asked, much nicer and calmly than before.

"She's in the infirmary, asleep, under observation, and you're welcome, by the way" Raider grumbled, sitting down at the table.

"My name's Buffy, Buffy Summers, now tell me what happened?"

"Hit demon, ran her through with a long sword, seems those vamps work for the LA Chinese Triad, took quite a bit of power to bring her back, she flatlined for 5 minutes" Raider replied, getting up, and pouring himself some coffee.

"Explains why another slayer was activated" Buffy replied.

"Thing is, wasn't even our fault, with the dusting of the remaining vamps, temporal displacement field manifested, the electrical discharges dusted them, and out popped a human/terminator hybrid, and her boyfriend, then in comes the cyborg from hell, a T-X, yes, just like the one from the movie, took her out, then came back here, pretty much the verbal cook's tour, if you will, of tonight's events" Raider explained.

Yawning, Raider got up, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms Summers, if it's ok, I need to hit the rack and get some sleep, that is, if you don't want to see a 6 foot 6 spartan pass out on his feet, that is" he commented.

"Take care of them, ok?" she asked.

"Of course, you have my word, good night" Raider replied, he then went back to his quarters/workshop, where, unsurprisingly, he found Illyria waiting for him, just outside the door.

As he beckoned her in, he suddenly felt utterly drained, and collapsed to his knees.

"You expended too much energy earlier, and tried to tap into reserves your body is as yet unable to handle, I will remain, and ensure your body recuperates properly" Illyria commented bluntly, as she helped Raider to his bed, where he promptly passed out.

Illyria, true to her word, stayed the entire night, meditating, trying to emulate the meditative state Raider would often drop himself into.

Friday, October 17, 2008

0935 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Balance demons, orbs, triads, and a T-X, yup, just another day at the office-

"I feel like crap" were the first words Raider voiced that morning, and, had he known what was to come that day, he may well have decided to follow his instincts and stay in bed.

"You appear unwell, I believe the expenditure of energy last night to have taken a worse toll on you than first thought" Illyria replied, reminding the exhausted spartan that she had spent the night, keeping an eye on him.

"Time to go get debriefed, and check up on our new friends" Raider replied.

Stepping out of his quarters, clad in a fresh set of fatigues, Raider stopped at the mess hall to grab a bagel and some coffee, then proceeded to the conference lounge, where, everyone from the previous night's events, plus the General, and Gemini, were all present, and, surprisingly, Buffy was still here, and had been joined by Willow.

"So, I hear your team had a rather interesting night?" Gen. Landry asked, somewhat curious and a touch amused.

"In short, getting zapped by the temporal equivalent of a bug zapper, and facing off against a cyborg from hell, then knocked senseless after you breach its power core is definitely not something to recommend if you value reaching old age, sir, nor the fact I almost lost a friend and team member, because of a hit demon hired by a pack of brainless Chinese triad"

Raider paused, then summed up his thoughts with "In retrospect, total crapshoot from the word go, sir"

"I figured as much, heard what you did to save Miss Lehane, how are you feeling?" the General asked.

"Like I went a few rounds with a mach truck" was Raider's response.

"As to your new friends, and the fact you've vouched for them, if they wish, they can join your team" Landry said, surprising Raider, but he didn't let it show.

"Thank you sir, the choice, however is theirs, I was gonna go see them after this meeting" he replied.

"We'll join you, if its ok" Buffy said, and Raider nodded his assent.

"I'll expect your after action report, and a copy of the recordings off your team's mission recorders by the end of the day, if that's all, we're done here" the General replied.

Stopping off at his quarters to grab his mission recorder and sword, somehow he was not the least bit surprised to find John and Cameron inside, and, it seemed his latest soul blade prototype had caught Cameron's eye, and, if what he was seeing was indeed happening, she'd apparently solved a long standing problem he'd been having with the weapon, for in her hand was a fully assembled and indeed, active soul blade.

"Well, that's interesting" Raider commented, alerting them to his presence.

"A curious design for a weapon, the phase interference was setting up a cascade failure, realigning the focusing crystal and emitter seems to have fixed it" Cameron commented, giving a few experimental twirls of the weapon, satisfied with it, she deactivated it, and handed it over to Raider.

"So, that's the new device Sam's been going on about for days now" Willow commented, reminding Raider they had asked to come along.

"Yup, not only is it a weapon, but it possesses the ability to heal various types of injuries, the mode used depends on the intent and what the focus of the user is directed towards" Raider replied, activating it, and praying he wasn't about to make a total fool of himself, swept the energy blade across a nasty cut he'd sustained from a piece of shrapnel from the previous night's events, and was pleasantly surprised to find the wound didn't look as bad as it had before.

"Wow, that's pretty useful" Buffy commented.

"Well, looks like I'll be constructing a few of these, the R&D gurus at area 51 have had an interest in this design for a while now, and I'd like to see how they handle a few field missions" Raider commented, ushering everyone out and remembering to actually lock the door this time, as they set off for the infirmary, to see how Faith was doing.

"You're planning something" Illyria commented, rejoining the group.

"What ever would give you that idea?" Raider asked, curious.

"While normally, your mind is quite difficult to read, with respect to thoughts you wish to keep private, you are being unusually concerned and guarded with your thoughts today" she replied, earning an amused look from Willow, and a snicker from Buffy, while John and Cameron merely shrugged.

"I've been contemplating a rather dangerous idea the last few weeks, and last night's events have made me reconsider my conclusions" Raider replied.

"This idea would be what, exactly?" Buffy asked.

"I was debating splitting the two orbs among several people, namely my teammates, and after last night, it's clear to me that while a risky and definitely dangerous move, the benefits clearly outweigh the risks" Raider paused and continued after thinking a minute.

"But before I can even implement the idea, I must first extend to John and Cameron the invitation to join the SGC, specifically, my team, Recon 1, after last night, I'm convinced the two of you would be perfect additions to an already effective unit" he commented.

"Funny, we were just debating this morning, on whether we would ask for jobs here or not" John replied.

"Well, the positions are yours if you want them, provided Faith agrees, before you ask, I like to get the opinions of my teammates before I do anything that could affect the team dynamic" Raider replied.

"A sound and wise way of doing things" Cameron replied, and Raider was once more struck with the thought that there's more to Cameron than she lets on.

'_Yes, I was human, and yes, John and I are in a relationship'_

This got Raider's attention so fast, he'd stopped walking, causing Willow to run right into him, of course, it also got Illyria's attention, seeing as the link Raider, Faith, and Illyria shared allowed say Faith to hear what Illyria thought to Raider, though, they could keep such mental conversations private if desired, so it was no small wonder when both Raider and Illyria turned and stared right at Cameron with unreadable looks on their faces.

"You're telepathic" Raider finally found his voice.

'_As am I, and she's my girlfriend, remember that'_

That, Raider knew, without even confirming it, came right from john, and judging from the feelings of amusement he was getting from a now conscious Faith 3 floors down, and Illyria and Cameron, they knew that message had caught him off guard.

"Well, that settles it, not only should I have stayed in bed today, but, I'll need to go ahead with my idea, and I hope it'll work with 5 people, as opposed to 3, like I'd been thinking" Raider grumbled, as he heard the laughter from his two teammates, and the two newest members over their telepathic link.

Arriving at the infirmary, they found Faith being checked out.

"Well, looks like you're ok, and, I'm glad you didn't give up" Raider commented, allowing a rarely seen smile grace his face, normally, he'd use the smile gesture, but as he was not in his armor, it wouldn't have been understood.

"I'll say, still, didn't think she'd go down that easily" a gruff, English accented voice said.

"Whistler" Buffy Growled, and before anyone could blink, Raider had him by the throat, his newly completed Soul blade activated and held dangerously close to whistler's neck.

"God damned balance demon!" Raider snarled, shocking everyone present, they'd never seen such a display from the usually calm and collected and indeed, level headed Spartan, seemed Buffy and her friends weren't the only ones to have had lousy dealings with the balance demon.

"You seem very familiar with this demon" Cameron stated, seeing this was her first encounter with the apparently notorious balance demon, she'd already taken an instant dislike to him.

"Because of his actions, I lost some good friends where I came from, he's lucky I have no desire to turn Dr. Lam's infirmary into a makeshift morgue" Raider replied, giving off every indication that he'd love nothing more than to introduce the now very nervous balance demon to the business end of the Lightning blade.

"Boy, I suggest putting me down, you know how the PTB hate seeing the hired help physically harassed.

This earned a snarl from Raider, Buffy, Faith, and a growl from Illyria.

Dr. Lam, sensing the sudden hostile atmosphere, came into the room, and bore witness to a severely pissed off spartan, a pair of slayers not too far behind, and a clearly agitated wicca, not to mention, an ex goddess who was looking ready to murder someone, specifically, a certain balance demon, who was now looking white as a sheet.

"At least confine the mess to that area" Dr. Lam commented, before turning on her heel, and walking back into her office, where she locked the door, and promptly turned on some music, and turned the volume pretty loud.

This, unnerved the balance demon so badly, he poofed from Raider's grip to the nearby doorway.

"Get out of here, you damned demon lackey, and tell the PTB they had better stop messing with other people's lives, or else when I die, I'm coming straight up there and bringing the rain straight down on their heads" Raider snarled, his eyes flashing gold for a second, a sign of his gradually reforming psionics beginning to manifest.

At the so called 'dumb' look, he proceeded to rip into the suddenly fearful for his life balance demon, "Don't play dumb with me, I knew the second John and Cameron showed up that it was your idiot bosses handiwork, now, you've screwed around down here long enough, now begone!" he shouted, flashing handsigns and firing off a seldom used banishment seal, which sent the balance demon running, tail tucked firmly between his legs.

Breathing a few deep calming breaths, Raider walked over to one of the beds, and promptly collapsed onto it.

"Every time I have ever encountered that damned horses ass I've had to suppress the overwhelming urge to shove a Raikou up his ass, and believe me, it might actually improve his personality" at that, everyone laughed, the tension and hostility vanished, even the normally stoic Illyria and Cameron chuckled.

"You know, you're only the 5th person to scare tweedle dee that badly as to actually send him running for his life" Buffy commented, nodding in the directions of Faith, Willow, and Illyria, and pointing at herself.

"Guess it must be a pretty exclusive club, do I get a tee shirt?" Raider inquired, setting off another round of laughter.

Sensing the storm has passed, Dr. Lam exited her office, and seemed genuinely surprised to find her infirmary intact and undamaged.

"I take it 'the guest' was an unwelcome visitor?" she inquired.

"Put simply, half the people in this room have had bad experiences as a result of that demon and his bosses, and would love nothing more than to gut and fillet him alive" Willow commented darkly.

"Speaking of which, what is Raikou, anyway" Buffy asked.

In response, Raider held his left hand palm up, and focused, within a few seconds, he held a ball of churning lightning, it was clear, from how fast it was rotating, that it contained massive power.

"Raikou, or the lightning sphere, I'm told by Col. Mitchell, that it resembles a combination of a pair of special moves from a Japanese anime, called Naruto, specifically, the rasengan, and the chidori, the Rasengan is little more than a ball of swirling energy, very potent destructive energy, the chidori, could best be described as a blade made of actual lightning, and capable of cutting through almost anything" Raider explained, as they all gathered and examined the still present lightning sphere, which Raider harmlessly dissipated.

"So, that's what you used to take out the T-X" Cameron commented, earning a derisive snort from Faith.

"You mean to tell me the big guy here faced off with a T-X and won?!" she exclaimed.

"It was just a damn movie for fucks sake, it's not real!"

"I suppose telling you I'm a Human/Terminator hybrid would make equally less sense as well" Cameron commented, pulling a rather well hidden combat knife, and proceeding to casually slice the skin off the back of her left hand, which caused a few wide as saucers eyed stares, and made poor Dr. Lam look a bit green around the gills, while Faith, who had the unobstructed view of the aforementioned left hand, simply stared at the mechanical workings of Cameron's hand, and snapped her jaw shut and pinched herself.

Carefully replacing the removed flesh, Cameron proceeded to bandage her hand.

Meanwhile, Raider, taking it all in as if it were just another day, laid back and closed his eyes and relaxed, he could just feel Willow using her magix and scanning him.

"Go ahead and say it, I know I used more than my body could handle last night, and went and did it again today when I'd barely had enough time to recover, it's an occupational hazard" Raider commented sarcastically, his eyes still closed.

"Actually, while that may be true, your body has been developing its reserves and tolerances faster than I expected, the fact you're still conscious after that fracas earlier proves it"

An airman comes up to Raider, and hands him a manila envelope, which he opens, drawing out a sheet of paper.

"Airman, take this to General Landry" Raider says, handing the envelope back to the airman.

"Well, as you all know, I bear a pair of powerful orbs, I intend to split them, 5 ways, why? To help better protect each of you, and to help you protect each other" Raider commented.

"It's not without risk, but, in light of the last few days, I feel its needed" he added.

"That reminds me, one of the reasons I came here" Buffy commented.

"I had a slayer dream, you need to do this, regardless of the risks, it's the only way you can help your team, and, you're supposed to go challenge the triad, you, Raider, otherwise, they'll keep sending hit demons" Buffy explained.

"Ok, Willow, Dr. Lam, gonna need you two as medical and magix support, it's likely the 5 of us will be out of commission for a few hours while our bodies adapt to the changes, we'll do the split and mergers here, that way, we have zero travel time to the medical equipment should we need it" Raider explained, getting up, and drawing his sword, which he shoved straight into the floor.

"This will be the focal point, once I extract the orbs, and split them, the lightning blade will hold and focus their energy, I need to set up a seal to start this, space yourselves around the sword, Dr, Willow, Buffy, I suggest, until this is done, you take shelter in the good doctor's office" Raider said.

Locking both doors into the infirmary, he proceeds to flash through a series of complex seals.

"Seal of light!" Raider cries out, slamming his palm onto the hilt of his sword, a golden barrier appears, encircling the 5 members of Recon 1.

"What is this magix? Why do I feel a sudden on rush of energy?" Illyria asked.

"This seal, operates differently for each user, in my case, it rejuvenates the user and his allies, heals any injuries to their being, heals damage to any gear, and keeps out any enemies not within the seal's perimeter at the time of the seal's casting, we'll need this" Raider replied, flashing a series of 50 handsigns, before crying out "Extract!".

A pair of orbs, one pure white, the other, pure gold, began to emerge, the white orb flowed out rather easily, but, the golden orb, took a while, due to how far along the merging process was, and it was quite painful, only the seal of light kept Raider from passing out, if not dying outright.

Gasping, he fell to one knee, as Illyria went to help, he motioned her back.

"No!, don't break the circle, I haven't the energy to put up another seal of light if this one falls" he grunted, getting back onto his feet.

Flashing several dozen handsigns, he sectioned each orb into 5 pieces, and joined a white and golden piece to one another, before they floated out to each member of the team, where they hovered, waiting.

As this was going on, Gen. Landry, and Cols. Carter and Mitchell joined Buffy, Willow and Dr. Lam in Dr. Lam's office, where they watched the events in the infirmary unfold.

"Sir, what's he doing?" Carter asked.

"I think he's splitting the very orbs that have helped save his life over the years, among the members of his team, a rather noble sentiment, I think" he replied.

"Also, very much necessary, I had a slayer dream last night, that's why I decided to hang around, a slayer dream is basically a prophetic dream, showing a possible outcome, hopefully, a slayer who's had such a dream can change the outcome of the events in the dream" Buffy explained.

Back in the infirmary:

**:Page 31-40:**


	6. 41 to 50

"Ok, now, the easy part, and, incidentally, the painful part, reach out and grab the fragment in front of you" Raider commented.

Being the CO of his team, he goes first, and immediately wishes he hadn't, as the pain is severe enough that he nearly blacks out, but he fights to hang on, since he knows the second he passes out, the seal of light will likewise disperse, and his teammates will need its regenerative properties for a few more minutes.

Faith, ever the reckless one, grabs her piece next, and grunts in pain at the sudden intrusion of the two fragments, Illyria, falls to her knees, gasping in pain, John's reaction, is a rather succinct "Shit!", and Cameron's reaction is the same as Illyria's, and, as soon as Cameron grabs her pieces, Raider looses the fight to stay conscious, and as the seal fades away, the other 4 also pass out.

At this, Dr. Lam and Willow immediately rush in, and, Willow, using her magic, levitates Raider and Cameron over to a pair of beds, since they are both too heavy for the orderlies to lift, and Illyria and Faith are placed in beds next to Raider, while John is placed next to Cameron.

Several hours later:

Raider finally came to, and saw his teammates had woken before him, John and Cameron had left the infirmary, and Faith and Illyria were sitting in chairs on either side of his bed.

"You two ok?" he asked, sitting up.

"I am uninjured, and feel, I believe the word is, great" Illyria replied.

"5 by 5, big guy, that was some power trip you took us on" Faith replied.

"How long was I out?" Raider asked.

"4 hours, you nearly ran yourself dry" Willow replied, as she entered the infirmary.

"It was a success, then", he sighed with relief.

"Um, where's my sword?" he asked, noticing it was gone from where he'd shoved it into the floor.

"Buffy has it, she's seeing how it handles" Willow replied.

This got Raider's full attention.

"What? Is she ok? It didn't shock her?" he asked, certain one of his friends was dead.

"She's fine, no, it didn't shock her, I remembered you said something about the sword deeming a user worthy, and it appears to have done just that with Buffy, as well as every member of your team" Willow replied, shocking the spartan, who cast surprised glances at Faith and Illyria, the former nodding with a smirk on her face, the latter, simply inclined her head, though, he felt amusement from both of them through the link, and outright laughter came from John, and Cameron's thought was what was amusing about it.

"By the way, Landry wanted to see you when you woke up" Faith said.

"Meet up with the rest of the team, get Cameron fitted with her choice of armor configuration, and have Gemini design a set of light armor for John" Raider said, as he left the infirmary, stopping off in the gym, he spots Buffy getting a feel for his sword.

"Thanks for looking after my sword" Raider says, as Buffy hands it over.

"Nice weapon, good balance" Buffy says, and Raider heads off to see the General.

Knocking, he's told to enter.

"I take it there's nothing I can do or say to talk you out of this"

"No, I don't care if someone attacks me, but try and kill my friends, and you better throw everything you have at me, and pray its enough to put me down, cause I wont give up, I cant give up, not now, not ever" Raider says.

"The triads put a hit out on my whole team general, I cant let that slide" Raider says, turning to walk out the door.

"If they are willing to take on the best the Military has to offer, then who knows who they are willing to take on" Landry says.

"We're gearing up, tell the Odyssey to stand ready to beam us up, I need to contact a friend of Ms summers" Raider says, as he walks out the door.

Headed to his lab, he spots the whole team there.

"Gear up, the triads put a contract on us, we're taking the fight to them" Raider says.

"Illyria, light forward recon, you'll find a wrist blaster and a forearm shield in the case behind you, Cameron, this, I believe, is yours, along with a forearm shield, and the Barret .50 calibur behind you" Raider says, tossing the completed Soul blade to her.

"Head into the next room, and pick out parts for some armor" Raider says, pointing Cameron to the door leading to his fabrication shop.

"Faith, you're our close in specialist" Raider said, reaching for his own weapons kit.

"John, you're Cameron's spotter, and our demolitions person" Raider says, pointing to a demo kit.

"And what's your specialty?" John asks, coming back into he room, wearing a set of ODST covert infiltration armor w. optical cloak.

"Covert infiltration and heavy combat" he replies, pulling out his own armor from its storage rack.

The others do the same, knowing the Spartan as they do, they will back him to the hilt, he's earned that much at least, even from the two newcomers to the team.

Knowing what her partner intends to do, Gemini arrives.

"I've gotten the contact information from Buffy, and have already contacted a friend of hers, Angel, and they will have the information we need soon" she says, projecting her holo form.

Raider went to another crate, and popped the lid, and removed a few clips bearing red end caps, and passed them out.

"What're these, big guy?" Faith asked.

"Thermite rounds, only thing hot enough to melt the endoskeleton of a terminator, short of a bath in molten steel" Cameron replied, entering the room, now suited up in her new covert infiltration type Mjolnir, also with an optical cloak.

"Ok, everyone grab a wrist blaster and forearm shield unit, don't mess with me on these, they may just save your life" Raider says, as Faith makes to object, but thinks better of it, as she shudders, remembering her near death from the night before.

Truth be told, Raider's still amazed she's up and about so soon.

"Gemini" Raider says.

"Jacking in now" Gemini replies, as her holoform fades, and her tiny sphere of AI memory core floats up into Raider's now gauntlet enclosed hand, and fading from view.

"Ok, check your loads, then we head up to the Odyssey" Raider said.

Raider himself, was packing his perennial Lightning blade, his MA5G assault rifle, and in a rare twist, he forewent his typical dual M6D pistols in favor of a freshly re-chambered M90A automatic shotgun, with several 10 round clips, and a pair of assault knives tucked into his armored boots.

Faith, was packing her new Tonfa blades, the last set having been lost to the explosion following Raider's fight with the T-X, a pair of HK Socom MK 23A's, and a blessed Dagger.

Illyria, was packing a wrist blaster and forearm shield unit(they are all packing these two items), and a 'thumper' grenade launcher, with 6 rounds, and 6 spare rounds tucked into a bandoleer.

John, went with a P90, a pump-action shotgun, and a silenced HK Socom MK 23, and a spotters scope, and he was carrying the 'door knocker' RPG with 3 reloads for this mission.

Cameron, packed a Barret .50 cal sniper rifle, and 2 spare clips, plus a Battle rifle, as well as the Long sword from the previous night.

As the rest of the team checked their gear, Faith had her helmet removed and was on the phone with Angel.

"Hey, Captain Forehead!"

-"Dammit, I see Xander's got you doing that now, too"- Angel replied.

"What have you got for me?" Faith asked.

-"Got grid co-ordinates, as requested, down to the inch, please tell me that nut in the armor has a plan? Because I really don't want to be the one to tell Buffy several of her friends died on some suicide mission"- Angel replied.

"Hey, last I checked, the contract covers your large forehead too, not to mention your team as well, and, yes, he has a plan" Faith snapped, beginning to show signs of irritation.

-"The information's sitting in your email account, and yes, I used the new encryption Gemini sent me, so let her know"- Angel replied.

"Thanks, catch ya on the flipside" Faith replied, hanging up the phone.

She put her helmet on, and logged onto her base email account, and retrieved the information, which she shot up to the Odyssey.

"We're five by five, and ready to go, big guy" she commented.

"I have a good question, just how did you manage to fabricate all this in the 2+ months you've been here?" Cameron asked, as the Odyssey beamed them aboard.

'_Didn't, used to have something called a zero space module, think of it like a library, take all those books, digitize them, and you've got a whole ton of information all in the compact form of a storage drive' _Raider thought.

'_What happened to it?' _John thought.

'_Power cell was depleted, and, I haven't the hardware to recharge it, that, was actually the very last item left to rematerialize' _Raider thought back.

"So, where to today?" Col. Davidson asked, with a half grin on his face.

The last time he saw the grey and black armor clad spartan, things, shall we say, were certainly interesting.

"Faith sent up the grid co-ordinates, seems we made an enemy the other night, they put a contract on my team, and nearly killed Faith" the Spartan, clearly upset, replied.

Wincing, Davidson commented "I almost feel sorry for the poor suns of bitches, key word, almost"

He had good reason to feel that way, in the two months the spartan had been with the SGC, it had become more or less common knowledge that Faith and Illyria were interested in the spartan.

"We're coming, triad bastards, and hell's riding with us" Cameron commented, causing everyone on the Odyssey's bridge to stare at the silver and black armor clad woman, including her four armored teammates, like she had two heads.

"What?, it fits" she replied.

"That, I believe, is the scary part" Illyria deadpanned.

"Standby for transport" came over the PA system.

"When we arrive, those who have cloaks, engage them, and your shields" Raider commented, signaling ready.

"Transport in 10 seconds" came over the PA system.

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling something's just gone fubar?!" John asked, just as the transporter engaged.

The team materializes on a short cliff overlooking the Chinese Triad compound, and witnesses a group of 50 individuals, some surrounding the compound, others, moving in, weapons raised.

"If anyone besides me didn't see that one coming, please, raise your hand" John comments, and sees all 4 of his teammates with their hands up.

"Ok, guess we sit tig…" Raider doesn't even finish his sentence before the area is rocked by what felt like an explosion.

"Ah hell, cloak, we're going in, weapons safety, set your blasters on heavy stun" Raider barks the orders through the comm link.

As one, they cloak, and move out, being surprisingly stealthy, considering two of them are wearing close to half a ton of armor, since it's his party, Raider led the way, and encountered devastation straight out of the worst war zone in covenant space.

Suffice it to say, even the spartan was a little green around the gills, as was Illyria, who, though an old one, had never bore witness to the level of savagery evidently dispensed within the compound walls.

Entering the courtyard, suddenly Raider froze, arm up, fist closed, and everyone knows that when the man on point freezes, it's time to play living statue.

'_Something feels very wrong here' _Raider thought to himself.

'_What is it, my friend' _Illyria thought.

'_With the level of violence here, I'd half expect the person or persons responsible to be pretty beat up, if not dead as well, yet, all we've seen so far are dead triads, this feels very wrong' _Raider thought, he didn't bother to filter the telepathic communication, he knew the whole team knew something was up, from his body language alone.

Raider takes a step, and feels a shell casing crunch under his boot.

"Ah hell-" and he leaps backward, barely avoiding a plasma blast, drawing his sword, and barely deflecting a second blast, as Illyria fires a grenade from her launcher, straight into the chest of, 3 guesses who, another T-X, which is sent flying 20 feet back, and she fires again and again, until all 6 rounds are spent, as she cracks and reloads, John shoulders the RPG and fires, striking the T-X right in the shoulder, the others, take cover, and Cameron unships her Barret, and sights on the T-X, and fires several rounds in rapid succession, driving the T-X back.

Raider, Draws his single shot grenade launcher, loads a Thermite round, and fires, striking the T-X amidships, driving it back again, seeing as the almost overwhelming brute force they are unloading on the T-X is having only marginal effect, Raider charges up a Raikou, and exposing himself to fire, rears back, and chucks the ball of tightly compressed electrical energy right at the T-X, resulting in an explosion that demolishes the rear most wall of the courtyard.

Appearing behind Cameron, the T-X jabs her with what looks like a needle fine drill, the shields on Cameron's armor flaring, before giving way.

"John!" she cries out, convinced she's about to be turned on her boyfriend.

"Shit!" Raider and John cry, realizing what's about to happen.

A blue light can be seen pulsing the length of the drill, protruding from the index finger of the T-X into Cameron's neck, and in a surprising turn of events, Cameron backhands the T-X, sending her flying, before collapsing to one knee, clutching the base of her neck, John approaches warily.

"Help me, I cant seem to stop the blood" Cameron says.

Raider, realizing, that some how the T-X's attempt to jack Cameron has some how failed, gives chase, delivering crushing strike after crushing strike with the lightning blade, finally running the T-X through, nailing the fusion core directly, which explodes out the T-X's back.

-"Cameron, on your right gauntlet, is a panel, flip it open, and press the Red Cross, that will manually trigger the Bio foam injectors, you will feel a sting and then some discomfort"- Gemini says over the commlink.

The telltale hiss of biofoam injectors working immediately sets John's mind at ease.

"She'll be alright, but, what I want to know, is why it failed to take her over" Raider comments, coming up next to Cameron, he puts a reassuring hand on Johns shoulder, and Cameron, gripping John's left hand, gives a reassuring squeeze, as John helps her back up.

"Well, lets see if anyone's left alive besides us, and the 20 yahoos outside" Faith says, taking the lead.

They entered another courtyard, when suddenly, Faith stopped dead, and before Raider could even ask her what was wrong, he felt such a strong wave of fear and panic rolling off Faith it shocked him, moving in front of her, he saw just what had caused her reaction.

A man, probably nearing his late 40s, possibly in his early 50s, stood there, on the wraparound balcony surrounding the courtyard, stood dozens of people, and various assorted demons, all of whom were looking right at them, as if they could see through the optical camouflage the team had active.

"Drop cloaks, full shields" Raider barked, gripping the handle of his sword tightly, all the while, staring at the old guy, who was giving off such an aura of malice it was literally a physical sensation.

'_It's impossible, he's dead, the first evil ensured it when it blew up the watchers council headquarters!' _Faith was all but panicking.

She felt her teammates sending feelings of calm and reassurance through their link, and Raider asked, as casually as if one were simply discussing the weather _'Who's the creepy old geezer?'_

'_Quentin Travers, but, he's dead' _Faith thought back, once more the calm collected slayer, all but exuding through her armor the desire to rend the thing in front of them limb from limb.

"Ah, yes, the mysterious armored warrior who took out the Turok-han I summoned for my triad friends, I've been wanting to meet you, and, kill you!" Travers cried out sending a bolt of lightning crashing towards Illyria, in a flash, Raider is there, his sword blocking the strike, as arcs of lightning crash around him, causing his shield to flare.

"A lightning user, eh, your attacks wont harm me" Raider replied.

[alert, shield at 95% and falling, energy type analyzed, chaos energy detected within lightning user] Raider's suit computer warned, Gemini was too occupied to monitor or warn him, since it seemed as if the second they'd entered the grounds, a powerful jamming field snapped up, one capable of blocking Asgard transporters and UNSC transmitters.

"Be careful, boy, least you get careless" snapped Travers.

"Don't call me boy, I work for a living!, you know, we had nothing to do with the last of the uber vamps being killed off, ever hear of a good friend of mine, called Murphy?" Raider replied.

"Ah yes, it would seem that bastard has the strangest sense of timing, not that yours is any better!" Travers snapped, hurling a fireball, which glanced off the shields of Raider's armor.

The rest of the team, sensing this fight was a bit out of their league, held back, letting their friend and CO take the big bad on himself, though, remaining ready to aid their fearless leader, should he need it.

"Fireballs, don't tell me you forgot to take your heartburn meds, cause I hate cleaning scorch marks off my armor" Raider replied, taunting Travers, trying to get him off his guard.

"I see you brought the slayer, Lehane, tell me, fancy another go with a wetworks team?" Travers said, getting little reaction from the slayer, but managing to do the one thing you should absolutely never attempt under any circumstances.

He pissed the spartan off.

"Hey, flame brain, got something you'll wanna see!" Raider snarled, sheathing his sword and charging up dual Raikous, he closed in fast, and thrust his left hand forward, intent on vaporizing the old geezer's head, but, displaying previously unsuspected strength, he knocked Raider back.

Not wanting an explosion in such close quarters to his team, Raider dissipated the churning balls of energy, and did a kick flip, landing on his feet, and turning to the side, narrowly avoiding a sword strike, though, the blade was still close enough it made his shields flare.

"You are probably wondering, how did I survive?, truth is, I didn't, oh yes, I did die, but I was reborn in a cloned body, imbued with magix of such power, it's like a never ending high" the old buzzard went on, sounding positively mad.

"Oh do shut up!" a now irritated Illyria snapped, ramming home a point blank shot from her grenade launcher.

The old man was unharmed, and showed his displeasure at being shot with a grenade launcher by belting Illyria across the face, her shield failed, and her armored helmet took the force of the hit, though, it still sent her flying.

Now, it's one thing to try and kill him, another, to insult one of his friends, but to actually try and harm one of them, is an entirely different matter altogether, as Raider summoned a modified form of his signature barrier shield technique, using it to slam the old man against a pillar, hard, repeatedly.

Sensing the old man's end is near, Raider tosses his sword to Faith.

"Shot's yours, slayer, take him out" he says over the commlink.

Snarling, Faith rushed forward, feeling a sudden surge of power from both within, and from the sword, and she rams it straight through Traver's chest, a metallic clunk is heard, and Traver's head slumps forward.

Suddenly, something falls from Travers body, and shatters, and in a whirl of wind and lightning, Travers body disintegrates.

No one noticed, but everyone on the balcony had vanished the second Travers body vaporized.

Falling to her knees, sword still in hand, Faith breaks down, as the memories from all those years ago, of men hunting her, trying to kill her, wash over her.

Raider kneels before her, and pries his sword free from her grip, and sheaths it, and pulls Faith's armored form into an embrace, Illyria embraces her from behind, and they let her release the pent up emotions from all those years ago.

John and Cameron stand off to the side, keeping watch, and all but respectfully ignoring the scene playing out behind them, sneaking glances at one another, seems they're both riding a battle high.

As Raider, Faith, and Illyria stood up, Raider felt a sharp stabbing pain in his right side.

"Ah fuck, bastard got in under my guard" he grunted, pulling the short dagger out from where it had nailed him below the ribs, right between the seam where a pair of armor plates joined, and he felt and heard the hiss of biofoam being injected along with a general painkiller.

**:Page 41-50:**


	7. 51 to 60

"Gemini, comms status with the Odyssey?" Raider asked.

"Comms restored, shifted to higher gain frequency and shifted team comms encryption" Gemini replied.

"Brave warrior, I am impressed, now I know how and why you were able to best the Turok-han, I've rescinded the contract placed on your heads, as well as those placed on Angel investigations, and the slayers, you will have no further troubles with the triad" an elderly Chinese gentleman said, stepping out from the shadows.

"I thank you, take this message to your people, they ever harm a hair on my team, the slayers, Angel and his crew, or any of their friends, and I'll be coming for those responsible, and hell will be riding with me, as of this moment, they are all under my protection, whether I'm on world or off world, got it?" Raider replied.

"Of course, though, such a vow is not necessary, we've already extended our protection to you and the others, call on us any time, and we shall be there" the Chinese gentleman replied, fading back into the shadows.

"That was the first time, in a good long time, that I've been pushed nearly to my limit, and, while it sucks now, damn did it feel good" Raider commented, earning him feelings of amusement from his team via the link.

-"Odyssey, Recon 1, beam us up, mission accomplished"- Gemini said.

-"Recon 1, Odyssey, standby"-.

And with that, they were transported back to the SGC.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

0035 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command, Earth.

-Unwelcome interruption-

Raider had just literally laid down in bed after spending half the day filling out multiple reports, briefs, and whatnot following the raid on the triad compound when suddenly-

"Unscheduled offworld activation, I repeat, unscheduled offworld activation!" came blaring over the PA system.

"Ah hell, who do I need to shoot just to get some sleep around here?!" Raider grumbled, getting out of bed and throwing on a set of fatigues and he headed to the control room to see what else had gone south, while not usually inclined to commit senseless violence, the past few days had taken their toll on not just him, but his whole team, and they all really needed some rest before taking on any new play mates.

Thus, why he had one of his M6D pistols strapped to a hip holster.

"Ok, Walter, who screwed up now?" Raider asked.

Harrimon looked at the spartan, and could see the desperate desire and need for some well earned sleep, but, fate, and Murphy, seemed to have other plans.

"Suit up, muster your team, SG-6 was just reported captured by Ba'al" Landry replied, entering the control room.

Spinning on his heel, muttering dark threats about senseless snakes in the grass interrupting his team's much needed down time, the spartan strode down to his team's quarters.

"Gear up, we've got a game, gate room in fifteen!" he bellowed, clearly not happy.

Suiting up, he took note that Gemini was already present within the suit, and was just as unhappy.

Arriving at the gate room, Raider launched into an abbreviated mission briefing.

"Ok, SG-6 under Colonel Mainlin was just reported captured by Ba'al, a system lord, and judging from the reports, a powerful one at that, rumors are he's got more than a few kull warriors under his command, hence, the Kull disruptors, 1 to 2 shots will put them down, a combination of that and regular weapons fire will take them down all the faster, stay sharp, and stick together, this bastard's a devious snake in the grass in every sense of the term"

Raider finished his briefing, just as the gate engaged.

"Standard stealth insertion, cloaks up, weapons safe, lets go" and with that, they stepped through the gate.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

0050 hours, px-1770-1a, search and rescue.

-Ex goddess taken-

Not even 2 seconds out of the gate, and every instinct he possessed was screaming at Raider to turn around, dial the gate, and come back with an entire platoon.

None of them saw the Al'kesh bomber dropping straight towards them, only a split second warning from their motion trackers saved their lives.

With a cry of "Barrier shield!" Raider threw every ounce of power he had, tapping into his long dormant tablet for added strength, the shield barely held against the multiple bomb and blaster strikes launched from the Al'kesh.

Unshipping the shoulder fired sidewinder launcher she'd insisted on bringing, Faith unloaded all 3 of the deadly missiles she had in her pack, sending the bomber to the scrap heap.

"Chew on that, snake freaks!" she snarled.

Illyria, meanwhile, was helping a badly exhausted Raider to his feet, the previous few days events, combined with using such a strong and demanding defense were proving to be more than even he could handle.

As he stood up, Illyria helped brace him, her hands were glowing, transferring power into him, in seconds, he felt able to stand on his own.

And then it happened, a trio of Kull warriors appeared and began peppering the team with plasma bolts, their shields, having been weakened by the combined concussive force leveled at the barrier shield, were already half depleted.

[alert, shield down to 50%, and falling, concussive blast wave injuries detected, dispensing type one and two painkillers, and type seven general stimulant] Raider's suit computer warned.

He noted the absence of Gemini, but assumed she'd hitched a ride with one of his team mates, so he wasn't worried.

He aimed his disrupter equipped MA5G, and unloaded, dropping one kull warrior, and driving another to its feet, and Faith, grabbing Raider's automatic shotgun, unloaded on the third, while John and Cameron had their eyes peeled skyward for more bomber craft.

It was then they heard the unmistakable sound of an Asgard transporter, but knew it was impossible for the odyssey to get there so soon.

Raider turned, and he froze, Illyria was gone, the battle rifle she'd held minutes ago was on the ground.

He could still feel her through the link, she was in pain…wait, pain? The fact she was in pain spurred him on.

He reached the gate within a minute, the other 3 members of the team right behind him, as he frantically dialed earth.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

0150 hours, Cheyenne mountain complex, Stargate Command,

Earth.

-Confrontation with a false god-

"Unscheduled offworld activation, I repeat, unscheduled offworld activation!" Sgt. Harrimon called out over the base PA.

Arriving quickly, Gen Landry asked the obvious "who is it?".

"Receiving recon 1's IDC, opening the Iris, Harrimon replied, slapping his hand on the palm scanner, and the iris whirred as it retracted.

Stepping through, Raider didn't even acknowledge the general, as he strode with purpose towards the base armory.

Faith, deciding someone had to tell the now curious general what was going on simply said "Ba'al took Illyria, he's going to get her back, and I fear it may kill him in the process" she said, before bolting to track down her teammate and boyfriend.

"Sir, he's ready to collapse, the past 3 days have had us running ourselves into the ground, and, knowing him for all of a few days, he's not gonna stop until each man is back home safely, sir" John commented, heading to Raider's lab, to break out some heavier ordinance.

"and what's your contribution to the disjointed report?" Landry asked Cameron, once more calmed down.

"Simple, he's refusing to leave anyone behind, and I can understand that, were it I in his position, I would do the same, please excuse me sir, I need to go load up on some major firepower, I have a snake in the grass to kill" and with that, Cameron walked off.

"Why do I get the feeling that particular snake just woke up the mother of all storms?" the general asked aloud, to no one in particular.

But, as fate would have it, a living legend was visiting that day, and chose to offer his two cents.

"Because, he's doing what any leader should, watching out for his people, making damn sure the job is done, and done right, and refusing to ever leave a man behind"

"O'neill, I think I need a drink" Landry replied.

"Sir, SG-3 reports SG-6 alive and well, they were trapped in some ruins when part of the structure gave way" Sgt. Harrimon reported.

"That's good news" Landry replied.

As they stood there in the control room, they saw the members of Recon 1 enter the gate room.

"Permission to take the Odyssey and hunt down that son of a bitch, and get our girl back, sir?" Raider asked.

"Permission granted, bring the rain, son" Landry replied, spotting what looked like that glider cannon Carter had modified some years ago, slung on the spartan's back.

"Odyssey, 4 to transport" Raider spoke into his suit's commlink.

"Odyssey, copy, standby" came the reply.

And with that, in a flash of white light, they were beamed aboard.

"Raider, we just got word from the SGC, a previously unknown Tollan alpha site has requested assistance, seems Ba'al is headed right for them" Col Davidson said, by way of greeting.

"Take us there, best speed Colonel" Raider replied, leading his team off the bridge.

About an hour later, Raider, still clad in his armor, though, with his helmet off and tucked under his left arm, walked onto the bridge.

"Colonel, I think it best we cloak before we exit hyperspace, before you say anything, I have two reasons for wanting to do this, one, they obviously wont spot us, and wont have their shields up, and two, my team can then beam aboard" Raider explained.

"True, but, you get spotted, and they'll snap up their shields so fast we wont be able to help you" Col. Davidson replied.

"You let me worry about that, on this one, stealth is only important for as long as it takes to get us onboard, then, it wont matter whatsoever, cause the shit's gonna start flying every which way, when that happens, put your shields up, head into the atmosphere, and provide interception for the Tollan, tell them they'll have 5 armored and heavily armed friends ringing down soon, I would very much like to avoid getting shot by an ally. Once we're planetside, Gemini will let you know, then you can very kindly drive off that mother ship" Raider finished outlining his plan.

Davidson had to admit, while overly simplistic, it was nonetheless a sound plan.

"Lets make it happen, Mister Robertson, please cloak the ship" Davidson barked.

"Sir, cloak coming online, engaging cloak now" Robertson replied.

"We wont be able to break radio silence, how will we know when you've begun?" Davidson asked, and at this point the rest of the team walked in, all fully suited up, Faith had even opted for the full armor configuration for this mission, after getting dive bombed by that snake's bomber, she was not going near the goa'uld in less than full armor.

Raider smirked, put on his helmet, and nodded at Faith.

"Simple, flyboy, all fucking hell is gonna break loose" Faith replied.

"Good luck, and godspeed, and give em hell" Davidson commented, and at that, they were beamed over.

'_Handsigns, or telepathy only from this point, cloaks and shields up and at max, and bring the rain, you find her, evac to the glider bay, and hold it at all costs' _Raider thought, his thoughts unusually sharp and crisp, they knew what or who was on the line, and they were gonna do their damnedest to save Illyria, even if it killed them.

Considering none of them has really slept or otherwise rested in close to 3 days, it very likely would kill them.

Even the spartan's near legendary stamina and endurance were being pushed to the limit.

Words weren't needed, even the telepathic link the team shared wasn't needed, they moved swiftly, silently, their purpose clear, their reasons known only to themselves, and with an urgency that would make a marine proud.

Raider had moved up 3 levels, he felt Illyria getting weaker, and it spurred him on, he knew he was getting closer, then he arrived on the next level, and spotted a whole corridor lined with at least a dozen kull warriors.

He smirked behind his armored faceplate, Ba'al had just lost a dozen of his best.

Drawing his sword, he pumped some of his lightning element into it, causing it to crackle with energy, he decloaked, knowing they'd sensed the build up of power, and stood there, letting blast after blast wash over his shields, even as the computer told him he was at 90% and falling.

Then, silently, and with speed borne of a one handed speed rune seal, all 12 kull warriors were on the ground, cleaved clean in half, not even their regenerative powers could save them.

Meanwhile, on Ba'al's command deck, Ba'al was watching the remote surveillance feeds with great interest, then he froze, as he saw 12 of his best go down in the blink of an eye.

"Foolish false god, one beneath my feet, you were warned, the greatest warrior I've ever fought alongside has arrived, as I said he would" Illyria said, as she spat a mouth full of blue blood at the suddenly worried system lord, who's ever mature and sound reaction was to turn and slam a fist into her stomach.

"Silence!, I will discover the secret behind this strength of his!" Ba'al snarled, utterly infuriated at the swift death being rained down upon his men.

"Fool, you've just pissed him off, you do not want him pissed off" a gasping and panting Illyira replied.

Ba'al had just decided she wasn't worth the effort that putting up with her comments would entail, and was about to level his staff weapon at her, when a loud crump noise was heard, and the only door in or out of the command deck rocked under the weight of what was obviously a very, very powerful weapon.

Just as the hatch was sent flying under the power of perhaps the single strongest attack of one of only two people to reach her heart since she came into a world very different from the one she left, the Odyssey opened fire, rocking the mothership, and Illyria was…overjoyed, she believed the term was, to see the man who, with no effort at all, had won her heart, standing there, his signature sword in his left hand, and a churning ball of lighting energy in his right, and it was easily twice as big as usual.

He looked dead on his feet, she knew none of them, herself included, had ate, slept, or otherwise rested in 3 days, and yet, he was still going strong.

Illyria knew, the second she was safe, he'd likely collapse, out cold, dead to the world for a few days, and, she was content to join him and Faith.

But first, they needed to get the hell out of there.

"I see you got my message" Gemini said, suddenly jacking into Raider's suit.

"So, you sent the message, I trust you'll fill us all in later?" Raider replied.

"Yes, but hurry, the bastard really did a number on her, her thoughts of you and Faith are pretty much all that kept her going, and if we don't get her some medical help and fast, even your healing powers wont save her" Gemini replied, spurring the spartan on.

"So, you're the mighty armored warrior I've heard about the past few months, and you've allied yourself with the Tau'ri, of all people, pathetic, and, you've taken up with a pair of demons, weak" Ba'al commented, simultaneously announcing his presence, as well as painting a nice big fat bullseye on his back.

"Hey, Ba'alsy, guess what I've heard about you? You aint got none!" Raider retorted, not letting Ba'al get him worked up, he was already pissed off enough to take on an entire ship's worth of Kull, and, he damn near already did.

"You could have had power, ruled many planets" Ba'al replied, as both men circled.

"Nope, not interested in power, could give two shits about ruling 1 planet, let alone many, and I aint buyin what you aint sellin" Raider replied, sizing up the goa'uld, and concluding this wouldn't take longer than a heartbeat, but, he reminded himself, pride goeth before the fall, an overconfident man easily defeated by the unexpected, as his drill instructors would put it.

"Then I guess it's time you die" and with that, Ba'al fired several blasts from his staff weapon, which impacted harmlessly against the full strength shields of the Mjolnir armor.

Raider feigned yawning, clearly unimpressed.

"And that's supposed to do, what, precisely?" he inquired, giving every impression of being bored.

Without pausing, Ba'al whirled around, leveled his staff at Illyria and fired several shots, all of which were deflected by a suddenly present and now clearly pissed off spartan.

"I don't care what you do to me, punch me, kick me, stab me, shoot me, I don't care, but no one lays a hand on those closest to me, not without paying for it!" with that, the spartan drew and unloaded the entire clip from his MA5G assault rifle, deeming the false god beneath the dignity of a quick death by his blade, or Raikou.

With that, Raider whipped his sword against the restraints holding Illyria up, and laid her down, she'd passed out from the bloodloss, the numerous cuts and wounds visible in her battered and beaten armor.

Acting fast, he drew upon his last reserves, and was just about to unleash the seal of light, when he felt 3 sets of hands supporting him, lending him strength.

"We're in this together, big guy" Faith said.

"She is one of us, we leave no one behind to meet the reaper" Cameron commented, once more causing everyone to stare at her as if she had two heads.

Shaking himself out of it, Raider unleashed the seal.

"Seal of light!"

And with that, he drew upon every healing seal he knew, drawing upon his last reserves, the others, lending their energy to help him keep going.

As this was going on, Gemini had signaled the Odyssey to cease fire, and send over marine backup to secure the ship.

With his left hand busy pouring healing energy into Illyria's unconscious form, his right was busy searching for a pulse, not finding one, he reacted swiftly, and via his suit's computer, interfaced with Illyria's suit, and audibly sighed with relief, she had a pulse, weak, but detectible.

Finally, the combined effort began to pay off, as the last of her severe injuries healed, her vitals returned to normal.

Falling back onto his ass, Raider wearily unsealed his helmet and removed it, setting it aside.

He sat there, his team, safe, alive, and felt relief, then shock, as the armored left hand of Illyria cupped his cheek.

"I knew you would come…" was all she could get out, before she launched her still exhausted and weary body at Raider, clutching him, her face buried against his armored chest, tears running down her face.

Unsure how to react, the other members of recon 1 did what they did best, adapted, improvised, and clustered around their two clearly distressed teammates, and offered what support they could.

"This feeling, it is foreign to me" Illyria said, between sobs.

"Relief, gratitude, happiness that you're safe" Raider replied, his own voice heavy with emotion.

"Illyria, Faith, when we get the time to do it, and do it right, I'm marrying the both of you" Raider spoke, with heart felt and sincere conviction.

"You're hopeless, big guy, but you're our hopeless" Faith replied, saying yes in her own way, tears running down her own face, her helmet at her side, forgotten, as she clung to her fiancées.

"This, this is happiness and contentment, I accept" Illyria said, and she grabbed Raider's face, and started kissing him, with a fervor.

The entire time this was happening, it didn't escape Raider's notice, that despite the evident brute force assault that had evidently been required to take Illyria down, despite the damage to both body and suit, the suit probably saved her life, in more ways than one, after all, it took a beating, and stayed operational enough for Raider to ascertain Illyria's condition.

"Gemini, have the Odyssey send over that spare suit, I think Illyria would like some shred of dignity before she sets foot on board" Raider instructed the AI.

"Done" Gemini replied, as a cargo crate bearing the SGC logo beamed in.

"Rest easy, we're gonna help you into the new suit, keep your dignity intact" Raider explained, seeing the unspoken question in her eyes.

It took the better part of 15 minutes to get her out of her armor, seeing as it had taken more damage than outside appearances led on.

**:Page 51-60:**


	8. 61 to 70

"I thank you, one who has won my heart" Illyria said to Raider, as she put on her new helmet and powered up the armor.

Raider, looked troubled.

Curious, Illyria shot Faith a look that said 'if I don't get answers, pain will be dispensed'.

"It was upsetting, seeing him nearly break, when you disappeared, then him and I felt you in pain through the link, it was amazing, I don't think I've ever seen anyone push themselves onward, fighting through exhaustion that would have dropped a human in their tracks, he put the fear of god into everyone on the base, without even trying" Faith paused, glancing at their fiancée.

"He wasn't going to take no for an answer, he stormed right into Landry's office, still fully suited, loaded to the gills with every weapon he could get his hands on, including this baby here, told him in no uncertain terms he was going after you" Faith hefted the glider cannon, Raider still couldn't figure out how she got her hands on it.

"We beamed aboard from the Odyssey, and he went off on a one man warpath, I caught up to him just in time to see him take out a dozen kull warriors in a heartbeat, he did it all for you" Faith finished, grabbing Illyria by the hand, hauling her to her feet, and dragging her over to Raider, where she promptly crushed the two of them in a Faith sized bear hug.

"I am not gonna let you or the bug guy here shut down before this has a chance to work, I said I'd marry you two, I meant it, now, lets head down to the planet, dial home and give the old man the 411" Faith said, earning a chuckle from Raider, and a gratified squeeze of the shoulder from Illyria.

"You 3 ok?" John asked, as he and Cameron re entered the command deck, after having gone and dispersed the marine boarding parties to various parts of the ship.

"We will be" Raider replied.

-"Odyssey to Recon 1, SGC requesting a status update"-

"Recon 1, Raider here, mission completed, we've rescued Illyria, and stopped a snake, saving the Tollan Alpha site, and securing a souped up mothership, we're going to be remaining here for a few days, recuperating from the week's events, and assisting the Tollan, Raider out" Raider replied over his suit's radio, before breaking the connection.

"You know, we wont be able to have a normal marriage ceremony" Faith said.

"There is a way, back in the time when the old ones ruled the earth, when an old one wished to take multiple mates, they would go through the life mate ceremony" Illyria replied.

"The benefits, include the awakening of certain instincts, heightening of others, and the awakening and strengthening of some senses" Illyria explained, at the curious looks the others were giving her.

"So, what's involved in the ceremony exactly?" Cameron asked.

"A chant, and the ritual blending of the blood of those who desire to be life mates with one another, it is sealed with, ironically, a kiss by those involved" Illyria replied.

"Simple, since Cameron and I wish to be life mates" John commented.

"Ok, lets do it" Faith said.

Back on earth:

General Hank Landry was normally not a violent man, nor was he normally inclined to commit senseless acts of violence, but the man sitting in front of him, from the IOA, Mr. John Zalaind, was seriously pushing him towards taking a page out of the Spartan's book, namely shoving a Raikou up the man's backside.

"We want to split recon 1 up, we feel having such talent clustered in one team to be a gross waste of resources and SGC personnel" Mr Zalaind said.

"First off, I was just informed that the team leader, and his original 2 teammates are engaged, I received this information via Col. Davidson on the Odyssey a few minutes before you arrived, so, you'd better believe they will be extremely resistant to the IOA's plan to split them.

Second, the spartan, he's extremely protective of his teammates, hell, he challenged the LA chinese triad after they tried to have his fiancée killed, and, as you're aware from the reports, after Ba'al kidnapped his other fiancée, he went to unheard of lengths to rescue her, all the while himself and his remaining 3 teammates were practically running on empty after 3 days worth of nonstop crap, so, I can assure you, the IOA's attempt to split recon 1 wont even be heard out" Landry replied, doing his level best to avoid throttling the bastard sitting before him.

"Never the less, the decision has been made, this is happening" Zalaind replied.

"You seem to have rather conveniently overlooked the fact that all 5 members of Recon 1 are volunteers, technically civilians, and at best, considered unpaid civilian consultants, as such, if given no other option, they will walk, these arent the kind of people you can just brow beat or bully into doing what you want, these are frighteningly strong and skilled warriors, whose trust, and loyalty was hard earned, and the IOA's plan, is at best a sure fire way to guarantee that we loose that loyalty, and that they will leave, and no, before you even suggest it, the technology sitting in the Spartan's quarters arrived with him, and as such, belongs to him, and is his to do with as he sees fit, as is the armors he built, regardless of the origin of the source materials" Landry said, making it clear the IOA didn't have a leg to stand on in this matter.

"Well, seems like golden boy beat the odds, and shattered the plans of the Powers, as he was never meant to save either woman" a gruff, English accented voice said.

"Whistler, Faith spoke of you like you were a mortal enemy" Landry replied, whirling around and fixing the balance demon with such a glare, that he unwillingly flinched.

"The spartan was meant to walk the path without attachments of any kind, by saving the women, he's turning his back on being a champion of the powers" Whistler replied.

"Someone once told me, that if you have something precious, important to you, to protect, you fight all the harder, that young man is a prime example of having something to fight for, and, if I were you, I'd steer well clear of the spartan, since when he finds out you've basically threatened his fiancées, he's gonna come looking for you and your bosses, now get off my base!" Landry growled.

With that, the balance demon fled.

"I take it that's a normal occurrence around here?" Zalaind asked.

"As of just shy of 3 months ago, yup, you pretty much get used to it after a fashion" Landry replied, taking out a bottle of scotch, offering some to Zalaind, which he declined the offered drink.

Back aboard the mothership:

Turning to her fiancées, Faith said

"Ok, so, lets do this"

"We slice each other's palms open, and let our blood mix" Illyria replied, removing both of her suit's gloves, and drawing her combat knife, she slices both of her palms.

Raider and Faith, follow her lead.

Grasping each other's hands in a 3 person circle, Illyria begins the chant.

"In times of old, we join, as one, though separate, forever linked together" Illyria spoke, nodding to Faith, indicaring she should repeat the chant.

"In times of old, we join, as one, though separate, forever linked together", Faith repeated, nodding to Raider.

"In times of old, we join, as one, though separate, forever linked together" Raider repeated, and Illyria leaned in and kissed Raider, then Faith, and Raider repeated, then Faith.

After Faith kissed Raider, the 3 of them started glowing with a blue light, which faded as suddenly as it started.

"Whoa, what a trip" Raider said, feeling light headed.

"Amen to that" was Faith's response.

"I…feel…warm, safe, happy" Illyria replied, putting her helmet back on, sealing her suit air tight, Raider and Faith followed suit.

They turned, and saw John and Cameron had evidently copied their actions.

"Lets go home" Raider said, breaking the circle, donning his gloves, the others doing the same, and he strode to the control console, and began setting the control lockouts, they were gonna be busy for a few days.

Keying his suit's radio,

"Odyssey, recon 1, we're headed down, send over the last of the provisions, and send over that field portable transport unit" Raider spoke into his suit's radio.

-"Recon 1, Odyssey, copy that, we've sent over 4 squads of marines, along with a list of equipment Gemini requested"-

"Sending over scan data and mission recorder downloads" Raider replied over his suit's radio.

-"Copy that, see you in a few days, Odyssey out"-

Saturday, November 1, 2008

0150 hours, Captured Goa'uld mothership, en route to earth.

-Old allies, a new fight, same old, different earth-

It had been a very much welcomed 2 weeks of rest and downtime, suffice it to say, things had gone amazingly smoothly.

Not only had they managed to upgrade the Tollan Ion cannons, but had put them to the ultimate test when an Ori mothership had decided to pay them a visit.

Seeing that ship 'go boom' as Faith had succinctly put it, wasn't even the highlight of the trip.

In gratitude, the Tollans had given them 32 of the powerful cannons, and had even fitted a further dozen to the captured mothership, for 'defense purposes', was the wording the Tollan administrator, a man whose name Raider couldn't for the life of him recall, had used.

When they exited hyperspace and headed to a nearby world to dial earth and check in, they got handed some bad news and a mission.

The tok'ra needed help.

"Ok, we're here, at a tok'ra base, one that's seen better days, and everyone's dead, and, no sign of the badguy, yup, typical" John grumbled, annoyed in more ways than one.

With the tok'ra base pretty much gutted by what looked like fighting of the serious kind, the atmospheric systems were down, and, naturally, the intensely humid atmosphere of the planet had filtered in, and was making even the members of recon 1 sweat inside their armor.

The marines from the Odyssey, they were even worse off, as they didn't have the benefit of the relatively effective climate control systems in the armors recon 1 was using, as was evidenced by the often times rather colorful language heard coming from the odd marine every now and then, as they swept the ruined base looking for survivors, and, if they got lucky, the sorry sob who attacked an ally of earth.

-"All teams, check in"- Raider said over his radio.

-"Spots, all members accounted for"-

-"Cyber, likewise"-

-"Slayer, ditto that"-

The expected replies came back.

He smiled inside his helmet, as it was somewhat amusing, how Cameron had gotten her handle.

She'd simply touched one of the consoles aboard the super mothership, and had instantly downloaded a wealth of information, and even uploaded some, the team had no idea how this ability came to be, but, as she was technically a cyborg, Cyber seemed most appropriate.

John, her spotter, again, his obvious handle made clear his primary specialty, hence, Spots.

He'd brought down 3 of the 5 squads of marines, leaving the other two behind, with Gemini and, Illyria, who, understandably, wanted to take it easy for a few more days, to let her healing factor run its course.

Still, the lack of survivors or combatants was unnerving him, he felt the inclination to have a few more squads beam down.

His drill instructors had drilled them relentlessly on this point, in an unfamiliar situation, you ignore your instincts at your own peril.

He stopped, hand up, fist closed, bringing his squad to a halt, and swept the area, his gun light playing on ruined equipment, dead bodies, and, he thought he saw something move, he paused, realizing he shouldn't have been able to spot the movement at that distance, it was at the end of the tunnel, some thousand odd feet away at minimum.

Seemed either the orb merging, or the life mate ceremony, or both, for that matter, had heightened his senses.

"Gemini, you got a fix on us?" Raider asked over the radio.

-"Yes"- came the reply.

"Can you sweep for any additional life signs?" Raider asked.

-"Negative, I'm getting intermittent interference, I only have a lock on the 4 of you and the marines, because of your radios and locator chips"- Gemini replied.

"Advancing, weapons safe" Raider said, his radio relaying this.

Switching to his suit's seldom used thermal visor, he quickly noted a definite heat source ahead.

He picked up the pace, weapon sweeping left and right, gun light playing over various objects, and before he realized it, he'd covered all 1 thousand feet in the space of a minute or two.

He switched his suit's visor back to normal mode, and saw before him, a young woman, half buried under some rubble, kneeling, he felt for a pulse, and earned a pained groan in response.

Keying his radio, Raider spoke in urgent tones.

"We've got a survivor here, Gemini, can you get a lock on her?"

-"Negative, but, if you keep hold of her, I can beam you both up in one go"- she replied.

"Transport my squad up first, just in case beaming us out destabilizes the tunnel" Raider spoke into his radio.

-"Standby"- was the reply, then a flash of white light, and his squad had been beamed up.

Taking hold of the survivor's arm, Raider gave the go ahead, and was himself beamed up, along with the unconscious woman.

"Her injuries, while severe, are not life threatening, she appears to have a second life within her, I do not believe it means us any harm, in fact, it appears to have been healing her injuries" Illyria said, appearing by Raider's side the second they were aboard.

"Yeah, got that sense too, all we can do, is keep her comfortable" he replied.

Suddenly, the ship rocked under the force of a massive explosion, and a shout of "Asarath, metrion, zenthos!" was heard.

"Dammit, here we go again" Raider growled out, seemed that was quickly becoming his catch phase.

They arrived in the mothership's hanger to see a stunning violet haired woman, about 5 foot 11, maybe even 6 feet, with hair down to her backside, shouting the same words they'd heard earlier, and trying to force back something from what looked like a portal.

Flashing through handsigns, Raider called out "Barrier trap seal!" and a powerful barrier sphere appeared, surrounding the portal, and the thing trying to exit said portal.

Seeing one of his normally unbeatable seals about to fail, Raider charged up what was quickly becoming his signature finishing move.

"Take this! Raikou!" he lobbed the lightning sphere as hard as he could, and was pleased that it succeeded in forcing back the creature.

"Time to seal this portal off" the violet haired woman said.

"I'll help" Raider replied, seeing his teammates taking charge of, and herding the marines to safety, this was a job for the big guns.

Seeing the violet haired woman nod her assent, Raider went to flash through the relevant handsigns, and realized, he didn't need them for this particular seal, since his affinity for the seals seemed to be coming back, and strong.

"Rune seal, portal trap seal!" he thrust his left palm forward, as a cry of "Asarath, metrion, Zenthos!" rang out, the two powerful magix meshing perfectly, closing off the portal for good.

Feeling a bit winded from the energy drain, since he hasn't used that seal in forever, and needing a bit of fresh air, Raider unsealed and removed his helmet.

"You, you're a spartan"

Sighing, Raider plastered a hopefully less than fully pissed look on his face and replied "And that's literally the thousandth time I've heard that, and you're from that anime, teen titans, though, you look more grown up than one would expect"

"I too, get that a lot, I'm thankful that at the least, I recently found clothing that's better than what amounts to little more than a one piece bathing suit" the violet haired woman replied.

Sticking his armored hand out, Raider introduced himself, as well as pointed out the various members of his team.

"I'm Raider, the woman with the brunette hair with blue streaks is Illyria, the brunette-excuse me, red head, is Faith, guess she can change her hair color at will now, those two are my life mates, by the way, the two up on the third level are Cameron and John, they are mated to one another, they are my team, and, sooner or later, you'll meet the marines who are along for the ride" Raider explained.

"And I am Raven, and, it appears, formerly of the titans, since I can no longer get a sense of that portal" she appears saddened by that.

"I'm sorry you'll be unable to return home, if I hadn't acted, that thing, I'm guessing was a major baddie, might have gotten through" Raider replied.

"It is alright, I was due for a change of pace and scenery as well" Raven replied in a semi monotone voice.

"For what it's worth, you're welcome to tag along with me and my team" Raider offered.

"Yes, I believe I would like that" Raven replied, with a gratified smile.

"Sir, the tok'ra is awake, and is asking to speak with someone in command" A marine announced, coming to a halt next to Raider and Raven and saluting, Raider gave a nod of the head in reply and, went to speak with the Tok'ra, Raven, curious, followed along.

Arriving at what was passing as a makeshift medical bay, Raider spotted the Tok'ra staring out of the window, watching the hyperspace field.

"You're awake, you all right?" Raider asked the female Tok'ra.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Raider, I'm the team leader of Recon 1" Raider replied.

"My name's Anise, my host, is Freya, They left me for dead, both my people, and that kull, left me for dead" there was a note of bitter sadness in her voice.

"I am alone" Raider noted the bitter finality in her voice.

"I am new to this realm, and I too am alone, but, fate seems to have seen fit to lead us to new friends, and they, will never abandon us, I do not know how I know this, I just do" Raven replied, reminding Raider she'd followed him.

"Come now, you think we'd abandon a friend?" Raider smiled, as he beckoned Anise to follow him and Raven.

"Lets go check out those fighters Faith found on hanger level 5" Raider said, eager to give his new friends something to do, hopefully distract them from their earlier sadness.

That's one thing that Raider understood, sadness, and he didn't want to see his friends like that, broken, alone, without hope, it cut into him like nothing else, no one should ever go through that.

"Hey, big guy, our guests alright?" Faith asked, this time, her hair was irish green.

"Yeah, they're ok, still cant decide on a color, for your hair or eyes?" he asked.

"Nope, and I don't think I can, either, damn, nice body suit there, gloomy" Faith said, eyeing Raven's black body suit.

"My name's Raven, your armor's not so bad either" Raven replied.

"The gel layer feels great, just caresses the skin, though, the plate armor parts have their benefits, hell, even without them, the gel layer still gives decent protection" Faith replied, her right hand caressing the armor less gel bodysuit covering her stomach.

Shaking his thoughts from the gutter they'd unexpectedly landed in, as well as shifting somewhat uncomfortably in his armor, Raider beckoned Faith to come along as well.

Entering hanger level 5, Raider looks at the gray and black fighter, "Well, they're beauties, but, I don't recognize the tech" Raider says, thinking the one he's looking at has to be some sort of stealth variant.

"Ah, I see you've found my gift a hand full of VF-19 veritech fighters, the first of many gifts, I might add" someone who looked a lot like John De lancie said, as he stood, leaning against a support strut, clad in what looked like an early next generation starfleet uniform.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit" Raider muttered, putting his helmet on, and sealing his suit, and turning around, drawing his sword.

"I've had it up to here with you god damned balance and chaos demons" Raider practically snarled, thrusting his sword forward to emphasize his point, literally and figuratively speaking.

"Easy there, I know of the bad experiences you've had with whistler and his bosses, and they're not happy with you at all, neither woman you saved was supposed to live, according to their 'master plan', you were meant to walk the path alone, I'm here to change that, if you'll let me, and the name's Q" he replied.

**:Page 61-70:**


	9. 71 to 80

"You've tossed quite the monkey wrench in their plans, by taking the ex goddess and slayer as mates, you were supposed to go to the city of the ancients, and help the SGC expedition there" Q replied, wearing a self satisfied smirk.

Sheathing his sword, and smacking his armored helmet, over his forehead, with his hand, and sighing, Raider asks "So, Q, as in Q continuum, as in how bad are we fucked?".

"Simple, there are other realities that are in danger, from threats far worse in some cases, than the one that looms over this reality" Q said.

"I am here to ask you, what if you could change the fates, of those who inhabit those realities, what if, you had the team, the resources, and the ability to travel to where you are needed, to change those fates for the better?" Q asked.

"I'd first ask what you're smoking, we've had enough of others yanking us in whatever direction makes them happy, at a whim" Faith replied, tonfa blade in hand, right behind Q, blade to his neck, Raven floated in front, energy gathering in her left hand.

"Were you the one who brought me here, cut me off from my friends, my family?!" Raven shrieked, tears running down her face.

"No, I was not responsible for this, neither were the powers, and regardless, it is beyond my power, or anyone else's, that reality was sealed off by the combination of power from you and the spartan, I'm sorry" there was a note of sadness in his voice, so unlike the Q Raider knew from the tv show startrek.

But, there was a detectible air of honesty about the man.

"Let him go, it wasn't his doing" Raider said, weary resignation clear in his voice.

"I'm getting too old for this shit" he said, sitting down on one of the trinium re-enforced packing crates that Odyssey had beamed over.

"Nonsense, for a 300 year old, you're not even into your prime yet" Q replied.

"I've seen stranger things than even you, things you cant even imagine, lets take this conversation back to the bridge, shall we?" Q asked.

"Since I get the feeling this might take a while, yes" Raider stood up, shrugging when Faith shot him a look of curiosity, again, with the sensual caressing, this time below the armor plate covering her chest.

Passing by the room that Cameron and John had evidently chosen as quarters, Raider could hear…moaning? And, what sounded like thumping.

Instantly glad he has his helmet on, he quickened his pace, hoping to lead the others past before…

And a shriek of gratified release is heard.

Not trusting himself to speak, or his eyes for that matter, Raider quickly led them out of THAT particular corridor, and onto the bridge.

Sitting down in their makeshift briefing room, Raider began.

"Um, ok, well, lets just say that was two of our own apparently enjoying their honeymoon still, and not a word of what you heard outside their room is to be spoken of, on pain of death" Raider explained.

"May I ask why?" Anise asked.

"Simple, you blab, Cameron guts you, and if she doesn't, her husband will" Faith replied, she'd changed her hair and eye color again, blue hair, red eyes, bad combination, well, bad in that Raider was now visibly squirming in his armor.

"So, we're basically going to be the ones who stop other realities from blowing themselves, and quite possibly the rest of us to hell, that about the size of it?" Raider asked.

"Yes, and we're not sending you into this unprepared, regardless of whether you accept or not, you're getting some new hardware, and the continuum is even transforming this ship into a city ship, a blend of ancient and asgard design, and it has all the bells and whistles both species' own ships and cities would have, plus tau'ri technology" Q explained.

"It's controllable only with a true genuine ancient gene, and since the members of your team, as well as the two new comers have it, only you 7 can control anything gene operated, though, if you choose, you can willingly share the gene with anyone you so choose" Q elaborated.

"This city ship is about half the size of Atlantis, has 3 piers, each pier has a ship docked flush to the pier structure, and the city itself is powered by 12 zpms, 3 for the city itself, 3 for each ship, the ships, when docked, form an integral part of the city's defense ring, since each ship has asgard weaponry, of course, the ships, and city, can cloak, with or without ships docked, and you can have both shield and cloak up, as well as shoot most of your weaponry through the cloak, only the drones and asgard beam weapons cannot" Q paused, frowning, and with a snap of his fingers, the ship transformed, and Q had a nice steaming hot cup of coffee in front of him.

This provoked a remark from the caffeine junkie of a spartan.

"It's not nice to magic in some coffee without offering it to those of us who actually drink the stuff and have an actual need of it first thing in the morning, you know, and, thank you for the new looks, with regards to our new home"

'_We're almost back to earth, I do hope you have some sort of plan for breaking this to the general, he wont like it' _Illyria thought.

_It matters not what the general thinks, we've been given a mission that we cannot refuse, if we do, everyone loses _Raven thought, to the lack of surprise of everyone present, seems telepathy was quickly becoming old hat to the gang.

"Someone care to share with the rest of us?" Anise asked.

"Simple, telepathy, everyone on his team can talk telepathically" Q explained.

"I cannot sense it either" Raven replied.

"It's your particular abilities that are to blame, they are incompatible with telepathy, but, your empathic abilites should still work just fine" Q smiled, as he replied.

"Oh, I should mention this now, but, I paid a visit to your general before arriving here, gave him the scoop, he's working on getting together 500 marines for security and whatnot, and science and support personnel, don't give me that look, this city ship is massive, you'll need help defending it and maintaining it, also, you'll need to travel to atlantis, borrow their zpm for half an hour, since we cant activate this city ship's zpms without it, this will also activate the 24 spare zpms allocated for atlantis herself" Q explained.

"Oh, before I forget, you'll need to speak with Ms. Summers, you're going to need her sister, to travel between the many alternate realities" Q added.

"Lemme guess, it's because she's the key, right?" Faith asked.

"Give the color changer a prize" Q replied, smiling.

"Hicks here, we've arrived in earth orbit, fusion generators are up and running, the cloak is up and holding" came over the PA.

"I trust the asgard transporters don't require zpm power to work?" Raider asked.

"Nope" Q replied.

Removing his helmet, and pressing his earpiece, Raider instructed Hicks to contact the mountain, and put in a call to the WCI.

-"Landry here, report"-

"Long story short, it wasn't a rescue so much as it was the Tok'ra abandoning someone they don't want any more, if they ask for her back, tell them she died at the scene, and, we had a guest pretty much unceremoniously tossed through a portal, so, yeah, long few weeks, I'm sending down digital versions of our reports, along with downloads from our mission recorders" Raider said.

"Sir, I've got a patch here for you from the WCI" Hicks said, coming into the briefing room.

"Transfer it to me" Raider said, before turning back to the conversation he'd been having with the general on the radio.

"Need to run, General, got something I need to deal with"

-"Understood, we'll start sending up the marine and support personnel you'll be needing, also, you've got a visitor waiting for beam up from the IOA, Landry out"-

-"Hey, Spartan, hows it going?"-

The greeting from Willow brought a rare smile to Raider's face, and it must have been apparent in his reply.

"Willow, it's going ok, I need to speak with Buffy, it's a situation that concerns her sister and a potential mission I'll be going on" Raider replied.

-"Hang on, she's on patrol with her sister tonight, actually, lemme have Andrew patch you through"-

"Ok, tell Xander I said hi" Raider replied.

-"Name's Andrew, hang on, patching you now Spartan"-

Raider waited calmly.

-"Hey, little busy right now…oh shit, need help!……"-

Buffy's suddenly panicked voice came over his earpiece before it abruptly cut out, in seconds, he had his helmet on.

"Andrew, Raider, I need a cross street, I lost her transmission!"

-"Copy, tracing"-

"Illyria, suit up, grab my rifle and 6 clips, tracer rounds, please" Raider spoke into his suit's commlink.

'_Trouble?' _Illyria thought.

'_And it's bad, Buffy and her sister need help, asap' _Raider thought back.

-"Parking lot near the cross street of Enterprise way and Booth street, in England, they need help, now"-

Andrew's panicked response came over the patch.

"Hicks, two to transport, location transmitting to you now" Raider spoke into his suit's radio as Illyria came up to him, fully geared up, she handed over his rifle and the requested ammo.

-"Transporting now"- came the response.

With that, they were beamed down.

"Ok, Andrew, where are we?" Raider asked, and noted his motion tracker started to freak out, literally.

-"You're in Whitwood Mere, sending map overlay now"- he replied.

Raider noted the overlay, and started headed towards the cluster of contacts.

"Summers, Raider here, on your six in 30 seconds, you alright?" he asked over his radio.

-"Need major help, these uber vamps are something else, Dawn's hurt, don't know how bad"-

Raider noted the panic in Buffy's voice, and doubled his pace to a full run, Illyria easily keeping up.

Coming up to the parking lot, Raider noted a full on battle in progress, and unshipped his rifle, and tossed it to Illyria, the spare clips slotted into the stock, and drew his sword.

"Blue, 60 rounds a clip, reloads in the stock, lock and load" Raider shouted.

Illyria caught the weapon without breaking her stride, and opened fire, as Raider dove headlong into the fight, his blade cutting a swath as he beheaded countless uber vamps.

"Damn, must be a whole fucking nest of them here" Buffy cried out.

An opportunistic vamp was about to take Buffy's head off, when a rapid fire burst from Raider's wrist blaster incinerated his head, dusting him.

"Been too long since we've seen one another" She said, slicing another vamp's head off with the slayer scythe.

"At least this time you're not trying to turn me into a sardine can" Raider laughed, as he took another vamp's head off, and incinerated another with a well placed shot from his wrist blaster.

"I count at least another 10 on my tracker" Illyria commented, dusting another with a few well placed shots, emptying the magazine, she ejected it, drew another from the shoulder stock, slammed it home, cocking the rifle, and opened fire once again.

"So, which master vampire did you piss off today?" Raider asked, locking onto Dawn, as she fought off a vamp eager to drain her of her blood.

"Dunno, they just jumped us" Buffy replied.

Fighting his way to Dawn, Raider scanned her with his suit's sensors, and noted a nasty injury to her left shoulder.

"Hicks, need emergency transport for one, lifesign nearest my signal, severe injury to her left shoulder, have medics on standby!" Raider shouted into his radio.

-"Copy that, locking on"- and with that, Dawn was beamed up.

"Where'd my sister go?" Buffy shouted.

"Sent her up to the city ship for medical attention" Raider replied as an uber vamp rushed him, and promptly bounced off his suit's shield, and earning a few shots from his wrist blaster for his troubles, dusting him as he fell.

Checking his motion tracker, Raider noted the vamps were gone.

"Well, that was fun" Buffy commented dryly.

"They did not last as long as last time" Illyria commented.

"Well, I came to talk to you about an upcoming long term mission I'm going on, I need your sister's help, shall we head on up to the city ship, and see if we can make this happen?" Raider asked.

"Lets" Buffy replied.

"Andrew, thanks for the combat support" Raider spoke into his suit's radio.

-"No problem, happy to be of service Spartan"- came the reply.

"Hicks, 3 to transport, briefing room, please" Raider said over his radio.

-"Copy that, welcome back"-

And, with that, they were beamed up in a flash of white light.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

1255 hours, cloaked Unnamed City ship, in orbit of Earth.

-Mission planning, the city of the ancients, thus named Rising Star-

Dawn's shoulder injury, was severe, an uber vamp had run her through with a long sword, and had needed reconstructive surgery, electing to use the nanite surgical system in the city ship's new state of the art medical bay, saw her up and about within half an hour of arrival.

She kept the sword, which, amused Raider greatly, seemed the women he met had a thing for keeping weapons that had injured them, or had been used to injure a friend.

Cameron had kept the sword that had nearly killed Faith, afterall.

Now, if only he could shake the IOA nitwit who kept hounding him, he could go check on Dawn, and then discuss taking Dawn along on the mission with her sister, whose approval he'd need, if he were to do so, of course.

Only an idiot would cross a slayer, and, of course, since he was most definitely NOT an idiot, Raider intended to do it the right way.

Now, if only he could simultaneously shake the IOA idiot, and keep him away from Buffy, and the members of his team, things might just go smoothly.

It was just as that oh so cheerful thought crossed his mind that Raider came across Mr. John Zalaind, doing the one thing certain to get him killed slow and painfully…he was pissing off Buffy, and certainly digging himself one hell of a grave, if the looks on the faces of several of the marines witnessing the argument were to go by.

"She's MY sister, who I might add, is a member of TWCI, as am I, and I should point out, our organization is recognized by the UN, and as such has diplomatic status, trying to take her is a very stupid move, and certainly one that would give me grounds to have you brought up on charges, asshole" Buffy snarled, waving the slayers scythe around to emphasize her point.

"Mr. John Zalaind, IOA representative, I can see the General was right, you are a horses ass, now, shut up, go to the briefing room, sit down, and wait for me, like a good little bureaucrat" Raider was in firm agreement with Buffy on this, as he drew his lightning blade to add further motivation to vacate the area, which he did, without the need for further encouragement.

"He reminds me a bit too much of whistler" Buffy said, and sighed, looking old before her time.

"That, was the comparison I drew as well" Raider agreed, sheathing his sword.

"Lets go check up on your sister" Raider said, leading Buffy to the medical center.

"Hey, you wouldn't believe how fast and painless that treatment was" Dawn said, by way of greeting, the smile on her face lit up the room.

"Let me look Dawnie" Buffy was firmly in sister mode at that point, Raider went and spoke with the doctor that had been sent up from the SGC, and was surprised to find it was Dr Lam.

"Well, will wonders never cease, my favorite doctor" Raider said, as he was given a friendly hug from said doctor.

"I see you're staying out of trouble, as usual" Lam noted, seeing the fresh nicks and dents in the spartan's armor, along with a healthy level of caked in dust.

"Heh, those vamps were something else, I'll admit that, but, still as dumb as a rock" Raider grinned, once more in a good mood.

"I cant for one second think your father let you come willingly, so, I'm guessing you threatened to resign?" Raider inquired, fixing the doctor with a look that said 'I know you did just that'.

"Yup, needed a change of scenery, what better way to get it? Besides, I've got you and your team to worry about" Lam smiled, it was the first smile the spartan had seen on her face in the 3 months he'd known her, and it made him feel glad he'd been able to help.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he turned to find Buffy regarding him with an unreadable expression, Dawn, had a curious expression on her face, as if not quite believing her eyes.

"Ok, who'd I shoot in the foot now?" Raider quipped, unable to take the sudden silence any longer.

"Thank you, for saving her" Buffy's voice, barely a whisper, still conveyed the heart felt emotions she was feeling.

Then she schooled her expression, and fixed him with such a glare, of iron clad resolve, the spartan unwillingly took a step back.

Nothing had ever managed to do that before, and for a second, Raider briefly contemplated the possibility of having a heart attack right then and there.

"Buffy, let the man breath, he looks like he's ready to keel over right there!" Dawn's voice broke the stalemate.

"So, you need Dawn, because of her ability, to open portals, for this mission" the statement, along with the sudden subject change actually combined to make the spartan stumble back another step.

Recovering quickly, Raider responded.

"Yes, the city, its transdrive, it cant operate properly without Dawn's ability directing it" Raider said, feeling quite intimidated.

"You have my word, we'll do everything within our power to keep her as safe as possible"

"I know you will, just as I know you'll keep your mates safe, it's in your blood, you're a protector" then Buffy smiled, and held out her hand.

Feeling immensely relieved, Raider gripped her hand, and immediately felt through his armored hand the immense strength in the hand of the petite blonde.

"Good, you're alright, you'd have to be, for Faith and Illyria to want you" she replied, releasing the spartan's hand.

Wincing slightly, as he flexed his hand in an effort to regain some blood flow to it, the spartan afforded the blonde one of his rare smiles, which, were becoming not so rare, now that he thought about it.

"Shall we go deal with the politician in the wanna be soldier get-up?" Raider asked, mirth clearly visible in his slate grey eyes.

"Lets, I want dibs on spacing him" Dawn chimed in, reminding both the slayer and spartan that she was present.

From the look in her eyes, the spartan just knew, that whatever Zalaind had said, it had earned him a trip back to earth, via one of the numerous vertical launch missile tubes the city seemed possessed with.

"Why me?" Raider groaned, as both women dragged him from the medical center, leaving a laughing Doctor Lam behind.

"So, Willow and Xander have a chance to tour the city yet?" Buffy asked.

Of course, the spartan came to a dead stop at that.

"Do I…you know what, I don't wanna know, too many surprises in one day, lets get this over with" Raider replied, resuming his walk to the briefing room, at a near run.

Entering the briefing room, Raider was pleased and indeed, surprised to see that Zalaind had indeed listened and had been awaiting them.

"So, you must be the spartan, and team leader of Recon 1, my name is…" he began, before being interrupted by Raider.

"I know who you are, and, quite frankly, I don't give a flying fuck" Raider said, which earned a chuckle from Buffy, and a snicker from Dawn.

"I also know you were sent with the intent to split the team, first, its not happening, second, I'm the life mate of two members of my team, where I go, they go, third, we're volunteers which means we can leave whenever we choose, forth, I, along with the rest of my team, report directly to the WCI, this is because they asked us to, and we volunteered" Raider paused, and leveled his best glare at the man, which had the intended effect of forcing him to forget whatever he had been about to say.

**:Page 71-80:**


	10. 81 to 90

"I believe, you said something to offend Ms Summers and her sister, I believe an apology is in order, not that it would do you much good, since they apparently want your blood for what you said" Raider continued, noting the looks of total rage on Buffy and Dawn's faces.

"I also believe you were sent to instruct us that we did not have authorization to undertake this mission, a mission we were handed by beings with far more power than even the PTB, and, I might add, the person they sent was at the least kind enough to ask us for our help, this mission is happening, with or without the IOA's approval" Raider said, putting his helmet on the table, and sitting down, as the doors to the briefing room opened, and the rest of his team entered, along with a marine officer and 2 civilians that Raider did not know.

Raider nodded to the new comers, indicating they should introduce themselves.

"Mike Brown, USMC, designated military second command, my wife, Natasha" he indicated the red head next to him.

"Call me Ann, I've been assigned as chief of the sciences and technical division, and a first class pain in the ass" she tossed Raider a cheeky grin.

"I'm Dr Thomas Mckain, designated civilian leadership first in command" a middle aged bespectacled man nodded.

"You've been appointed military first in command, at the recommendation of General Hank Landry" he handed over a folder.

Glancing at the contents, Raider noted his mission orders, and the abbreviated dossiers for the mission's senior personnel.

"Who're the civilians?" Brown suddenly asked, pointedly looking at Buffy, and her sister Dawn.

"Ms Buffy Summers is here as a representative of the WCI, her sister, Dawn, is here, because of her unique talent, as well as her skills as a linguist" Raider replied, glancing at Dawn's abbreviated dossier.

"And just what is her talent, that makes it so important, that a woman barely out of her teens, be appointed to such an important mission?" Zalaind asked.

Raider was about to reply that it was classified need to know, when he picked up on a line of thought from Buffy, an unguarded thought.

'_She has the ability to open portals to other realms, she's had everything from crazed hell goddesses, to men in black, after her for this'_

Just as Dawn is about to speak, Raider beats her to the punch.

"She has a unique variation of the ancient gene, one that is particularly strong" Raider lied, sparing Dawn the pointless exposure of her talent.

Dawn smiled, and gave the spartan a look of thanks.

"Well, it's gonna take us about 3-4 weeks to gather up required personnel, and at least 1 week for those with families to make arrangements" Dr. McKain said.

"McKain, this is a long term mission, possibly lasting years, or decades, I see no reason to forcibly tear families apart, and this is a city ship, we have room" Raider said, drawing surprised looks.

"You do realize there are unknown risks here, right?" Brown asked.

"Yes, and I also know that the benefits of having one's family present, out weigh the possible risks, take your typical married soldier, he'll fight longer, harder, fiercer, if he has something to protect, and, there's the therapeutic benefit of having a wife and or kids to come home to, helps keep that soldier sane, and remind him why he took the mission" Raider gave Zalaind a pointed look, as the IOA representative was looking ready to object.

"I see your point in that respect, so, make it optional?" Brown asked, looking at his wife.

"Of course" Raider replied.

-"This is Hicks, Raider, you should see this feed we received from one of the city's sensor drones"- Raider heard Hicks, via his earpiece.

Standing up, he walked to a monitor set into the wall, and, touched the screen, which came to life, and displayed what the drone was seeing, namely, a massive city ship, with 3 large piers arrayed in a 3 point star shape, with 3 smaller piers, linked together with a ring, pretty much a scaled down version of the city of Atlantis…except, Atlantis didn't have it's piers linked by a ring, nor did the 3 largest piers look like they had a ship docked flush within…

"Is it me, or do the large piers look like they each have a ship docked?" Ann asked.

"Am I seeing things, or does that ring look like it's got some serious weaponry built into it?" Brown asked.

"That's because each of the large piers does have a ship docked, and, the reason that ring looks like it's armed for very large bear is because it's the city's defense ring" Gemini said, announcing her presence, and projecting her holoform from one of the holo projectors situated in the briefing room's ceiling.

"I've found a translation of the name for this city ship, 'Star that rises', interesting, how does 'Rising Star' sound?" Gemini asked.

"Fits" was the spartan's gruff response.

Returning to the matter of setting up the expedition, Raider listened as Buffy offered a suggestion.

"I think I might know a few active duty slayers who might want to volunteer for this mission, and you could use a few 'strong' warriors, if you will, to help bolster the city's defenses" she said.

"Well, I've seen how strong a slayer is, I think it's a sound suggestion" Brown said, offering his thoughts on the idea.

"Yup, I like it GI, and, I think we all know tweedle dee's thoughts on the matter" Faith replied, hooking her thumb in Zalaind's direction.

Brown smiled at her, he was taking to her way of dealing with others quite well.

"If it's possible, could you have the guy manning the transporter zap me to the council head quarters so I can set things in motion?" Buffy asked.

"Sure, go see Hicks in the control room, and, as always, it was good to see you again, give my regards to Willow and Xander" Raider replied.

"Yup, and take care, Dawnie" Buffy said, giving her sister a hug, before exchanging respectful nods with Faith, and regarding Illyria with a friendly smile, and with that, she left.

"I think we're done here for now, lets make this happen" Raider said, before turning, and heading to one of the nearby windows.

He stared, not noticing that Faith and Illyria had walked up beside him.

"Yup, here we go again" Raider wryly commented to no one in particular.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

1435 hours, Rising Star, enroute to Atlantis.

-Commencement, unexpected developments-

It had taken the better part of 2 months to fully prepare, the time was spent selecting personnel, and of course, training the pilots in the use of the VF-19 Veritechs, the simulators in the city's defense ring had proved most useful, and, fortunately, the training period for the new X308 interceptors was mercifully short, as it mostly involved some changes in the cockpits, pretty much just some retraining.

Then, on the day they were supposed to head out, they were informed by Dr. Ann Brown, that the city's zpms needed to be initialized.

Without the zpms, the city's shield, and the more powerful off its armaments were unusable, along with the 3 ships, Gemini had called them swords, they too would be useless without initialized zpms, and, to make matters worse, they only had enough reserve power for just one long range hyperspace jump.

Beyond that, they would be on their own, thus, the Odyssey had been diverted from her normal duties to run escort.

And of course, to make things interesting, along with 1000 mission personnel, they had a further 600 non mission personnel, family members of the members of the expedition.

All this was on Raider's mind still, 2 weeks after they had left earth.

They still had another 2 weeks in hyperspace to go.

"Ok, so, he comes in low, flips, goes into guardian mode, intent on scaring the crap out of Philips, and guess what? She comes out of no where in battloid mode, and does a leg sweep with a scissor closeline to the neck"

Raider chuckled as he heard about the latest exploits Cameron had achieved in the simulators, even as he read the report from Dr Brown, regarding the zpm situation.

He paused, reflecting on the remarkable prowess displayed by the 4 slayers that had volunteered for the expedition.

Even when confronted with strange alien technology, they quickly adapted and improvised, well, 3 of them did, the 4th, fought it like hell.

She was a problem in the making.

Kennedy Williams, ex girlfriend of Willow Rosenberg, and a slayer with a major chip on her shoulder.

She'd picked a fight with Raider almost as soon as she came aboard, questioning everything.

He'd let it go, having long since learned that among the troops, even a little bitching can have its salutary effects.

But, it crossed the line earlier that day, when she'd inadvertently insulted Illyria and himself.

Normally, where it would concern her mates, Illyria would have ripped into someone who'd offended her instantly, she was that protective, but, seeing the look on her mates faces, had let it go, despite her relatively new marrage to the Spartan and the slayer, she was still learning

restraint, which, hadn't been made any easier by her near death some months ago.

So, Raider had set up a little sparring match in the training room, a nice 3 story room set within the central tower, and, genius she is not, Kennedy had insisted Raider wear his armor, something about larger and heavier opponents being easier takedowns…

The other 3, Rona, Violet Dames or Vi, as she preferred to go by, and the third, whom Raider didn't know, and hadn't yet met, were curious, as to what he planned to do.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Raider was unsurprised to find the whole team there, as well as Raven and Anise, who, surprisingly had become fast friends.

He noted Kennedy had elected to wear her Mjolnir 'Slayer special' variant armor, good, meant she was possibly taking this seriously.

"Here, staves only, rules are simple, no killing blows, nor maiming, disabling hits only, oh, and no shields, other than that, fair game, got it?" Raider asked.

All he got was a curt nod, then a fierce strike aimed at decapitation, which the spartan blocked easily.

Back and forth the fight went, Raider noted several things.

"You're dropping your left shoulder, don't, leaves you open"

"Shut it, and fight" Kennedy spat.

"Pride, arrogance, thinking you're better than the guy next to you, all these things will lead to your downfall, and, eventual early death" Raider replied, sweeping Kennedy's legs out, and pinning her.

"You need to let go of these things, you have the potential to be a long lived, strong and powerful slayer, like Summers and Lehane, now, let it go!" Raider growled, as Kennedy flipped him off of her, and snatched her staff, and kick flipped back onto her feet.

"Good, now, hit me"

"What is he doing?" Anise asked.

"Helping her unlearn some habits and beliefs that could get her killed" Raven replied, smirking.

The silent, nameless slayer moved and stood next to Raven and Anise.

"Stalker" it was a greeting.

"Voodoo" came the reply.

Raven smiled, and the slayer, now named Stalker likewise smiled.

They looked, as Kennedy kept trying, and failing, to hit the spartan.

"Come on, hit me" Raider said, effortlessly blocking another blow.

"I'm trying" she replied.

"To borrow from starwars, do, or do not, there is no try" he shot back.

Just then, she lands a kick, and the spartan goes sailing into the wall.

Raider gets up, feeling the power of the blow even through his armor.

"Good, very good" Raider extends his hand, and, Kennedy took it and shakes.

"Tell me, why, why go to such lengths for someone who no one likes, and is hated by all?" Kennedy asked.

"As much as it would surprise you, there are a few who do like you, one of them asked me to help you. After seeing your skills in action, I felt you weren't yet beyond help, and, I felt you would make a good addition to the expedition, so, I asked for you. Help is never far, you have but to ask, and it will be given, freely and without expectation of anything in return.

Here on the Rising Star, you have friends, allies, and teammates" Raider replied.

Wearily removing his helmet, Raider walked upstairs to the second floor of the training room, and stood there, observing as a bunch of marines got into it.

"I'm putting you in charge of a fire team, 3 marines, a pilot, and a medic, pick your team carefully, and none of the command staff, or the two recon teams are up for grabs" Raider said, turning to Kennedy, who had followed him upstairs.

"Why?"

"We're in this for the long haul, we'll need our best people at their level best, and the right way to do that, is with good leaders, yes, you screwed up, who doesn't? what matters is you learned from it, and, now its time to pass the knowledge on" Raider explained.

"Hey, been looking for you, my mate" Faith said, interrupting the conversation.

"Oh, who'd I shoot now?" the spartan asked.

"It's Illyria, she's been acting, well, off, for her at least, for the last few days, and, she's avoiding me" Faith replied, removing her own helmet, and setting it down next to her.

Raider looked, and realized, that Illyria had indeed left as soon as the spar was over, adding weight to Faith's reasoning.

Sighing, Raider grabs his helmet, and puts it on, and accesses the city's maps, and promptly realizes the city's grown from half the size of atlantis, to a full fledged atlantis class city ship.

"Perfect, Illyria's playing hide and seek, and the city's grown, again" Raider growled, as he proceeded to track down his wayward mate.

Pausing, he realized she was blocking the telepathic link.

So, he went back, thought, and recalled the places she preferred to go, when feeling 'overwhelmed' as she put it.

_Dammit, where the hell is she?! _Raider thought, careful to keep that thought from broadcasting across the link.

It occurred to him about an hour into his search, that if anything, Illyria's mental shields had gotten stronger, that, or she had gotten better at crafting them, probably both, the spartan realized with a sigh.

_Ok, she's not in the towers on any of the piers, she's not in the jumper bay, she hates the medical center with a vengeance, wait, I know. _Raider thought

He'd found her there one night, just after Q had transformed the super mothership into a city ship, the stellar observatory, star gazing.

Re tracing his path, not difficult, for him, anyway, he quickly arrived at pier 3, and made his way to the observatory.

"Knew I'd find you here, eventually" Raider commented, on seeing his hunch proven correct.

"You are concerned, because I've been avoiding you and Faith the past few days" Illyria stated.

"Kinda hard not to be, the 3 of us are mated, so, what affects one of us, affects us all, we are 3 parts of a whole, so, yes, I am concerned" Raider replied, removing his helmet, and plopping himself down on one of those couches one expects to find in the office of their shrink.

"I have been having…difficulties…with my emotions, I believe it to be a result of the partial remnants of the soul and personality of the shell I inhabit, of Fred" Illyria explained.

And it hit Raider with all the force of a covenant brute in berserker mode, she was afraid.

Now, there aren't many things that escape the notice of a highly trained and experienced spartan, and of course, this was one of them, naturally, the spartan felt like a heel for not noticing this.

"Hey, I get it, you're afraid, you feel like at times you don't have control, and believe me, I've been there, its ok to feel fear, as long as you don't let it become you" Raider's eyes had taken on a haunted look at that, and Illyria knew, whatever it was in his past that he was comparing to her situation, it wasn't pleasant, in any sense of the word.

"I believe the proper response is, do you want to talk about it" Illyria asked, moving to sit at Raider's feet.

"I wasn't always the 'noble, determined' warrior, as Faith and a few of the marines would put it, at one time, I was in a situation where I really didn't have control, it was a very dark time for me, I nearly gave in to my fear and helplessness, what saved me, was the sacrifice of a friend, she gave her life to pull me back from the brink of total insanity" Raider's eyes now had that look of having stared down death itself in the face, and barely escaping with his life.

"You almost lost yourself to the darkness"

"Yes, my friend gave her life to pull me back from the edge" Raider said

"I see, I believe the point you wish to make, is that we should not face problems like this alone, that, we are stronger together, and should deal with this, together"

"Yes, now, come on, lets go find Faith, I'm pretty sure she's got more experience than is healthy, in dealing with this kind of thing" Raider replied, grabbing his helmet in one hand, and offering the other to Illyria.

They found Faith giving a hand to hand course, and afterward, spent the next few hours talking about their pasts, though, over the next few days, all 3 of them acted a bit off, as they dealt with the long delayed repercussions of their pasts.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

0840 hours, Rising Star, enroute to Atlantis, 3 hours to go till drop out from hyperspace.

-Complications-

The last few days saw a tense recon 1 and expedition command staff busily overseeing drills and training, being so deep in enemy territory, it was understandable that tensions were running a bit high.

-"Odyssey here, we're dropping out early, just received an emergency message from Atlantis, Daedalus has been captured, and is on a direct course for Atlantis, they believe that the Wraith on board may try to intercept us"-

Raider listened as the message came over his ear piece.

Pressing his ear piece, Raider barks out a series of orders.

"Recon 1 gear up, fire teams 1 through 4 gear up and report to the briefing room, we've got a wild card situation"

Turning, he nods to Brown and McKain, then proceeds to his lab to suit up.

"Gemini, I'll need you on logistics and support, I'm betting the leeches are gonna be gunning for Atlantis' ZPM, they loose it, they, and us, are royally screwed to hell and back" Raider replied, as he headed to his lab, his stride, and the way he held himself just screamed 'warrior', those who knew him knew he was typically an easy going individual, but, when on a mission, or prepping for a mission, the 'Warrior' came out to play.

"Raider, watch yourself, these Wraith are super strong, stronger than the Turok-han we went up against a few months ago" Gemini replied, concern clear in her voice.

"I will" was the spartan's reply.

Having suited up, the spartan returned to the control room, and was met by McKain.

"I assume you've got something besides the usual 'make it up as we go' plan?"

"Yes, I'm going to deploy the fire teams to cover the naquada generators, recon 1 will rove and pick off targets of opportunity, while we leave the Daedalus to you and the Odyssey" replied the spartan, drawing his MA5G, and checking its load, before slinging it, of course, he had his perennial sword sheathed, and a pair of M6D pistols, along with his shotgun.

He turned, and drew what looked like a pair of modified wrist blasters, and slid them onto the forearm guards, locking them into place, he looked up, and saw his team likewise outfitted with his invention, and loaded with similar weapons loads, and knew, he just knew, they would win this battle.

"We'll need 5 jumpers, 4 for the fire teams, and 1 for recon 1, plus whatever marine support you think the city can spare, Brown, You've got military command until my return" Raider paused, and smiled, as he put on his helmet.

**:Page 81-90:**


	11. 91 to 98

Seemed his team was as confidant as he was of their odds.

"Standby, Odyssey just radioed we should get ready for the dropout of hyperspace" Hicks said, from his position at the communications board.

"Dawn, how are you holding up?" the spartan asked via his suit's radio, the concern clear in his voice.

"I could use a break about now, but, otherwise just fine, listen, I know you're going into battle, come back safe, or my sister will find a way to bring you back and kill you herself" Dawn replied, laughing after that last part.

This naturally set off the spartan, who, is usually firmly into warrior mode by this point.

In seconds, the whole team was laughing, the joke being shared over their telepathic link.

"Ok, ok, time to get on the ball guys, got a bunch of vicious life sucking leeches to smoke out and frag" Cameron said, once again causing everyone to look at her funny.

Of course, she was oblivious to that particular type of stare.

"Message from Atlantis, their gate went nuclear, control room's blown to hell, they're gonna need medical personnel" Hicks said over the comm.

Raider nodded as he turned, as the fire teams entered the briefing room.

"Ok, Kennedy, Zpm generator room, Rona, Naquada room 1, Vi, Naquada room 2, Stalker, Naquada room 3, hold at all costs, weapons free on any targets of opportunity, lets go save Atlantis" Raider said, as he issued out the team assignments, before turning to McKain.

"The moment you make orbit, send down the replacement gate, and hardware, as well as the supplies they'll need to patch up the central tower"

"Gotcha" McKain replied.

Raider led his team up to the jumper bay, and picked out a jumper that almost looked as if it had been made just for them.

"Ok, had lessons, but, I really, really hate flying" he muttered to himself, he gripped the controls, and saw and felt the jumper come to life.

With that, the jumper took off.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

0910 hours, City of Atlantis.

-Wraith attack-

Major Lorne was normally not a religious man, hell, he didn't even believe in luck, but the second he spotted the Grey and white armored form approach, the first thing he did was question lady luck, the second, on seeing the armored form raise its rifle, and fired a burst, putting down two wraith, was to offer a devout prayer of thanks to the gods.

Grabbing a 3rd Wraith by the neck, before it could draw its stunner, Raider was just about to put a .45 round through its head, when it posed a question that actually brought him up short for once.

"What are you?"

"They call me the Spartan" was the response, followed by a gunshot.

Turning to the stunned major, Raider was about to ask if he was alright, when a massive explosion sent him sailing right at the man, it was of sufficient strength to make his shields dip 5 percent, he twisting himself to land on his side, thereby missing the stunned man, who was likewise sent reeling by the blast, Raider executed a kick flip, landing on his feet just in time to see an armored warrior get sent flying into the wall, where it lay stunned, the spartan noted it wasn't wearing Mjolnir armor, and then noted the presence of something out of the ten levels of hell standing, aiming a point blank shot at the prone warrior, which missed.

The reason the shot missed, was a well timed missile from Faith.

Reacting quickly, the spartan holstered his pistol, and flashed through the handsigns needed to use a particular portal seal, when he noted the dark form moving towards Faith.

"Oh no you don't, I'm your opponent tonight!" Raider bellowed, firing off a Raikou, nailing the dark form in its backside, and getting its undivided attention.

"Fuck……Barrier shield trap shield form!" Raider cried, focusing a lot of power into the as yet undefeated defense, trapping the dark form within the shield sphere.

Once more flashing handsigns, Raider cried out "Rune seal, portal trap seal!" and finished by thrusting his hand palm first at the dark form.

This of course, immediately got its attention, as the dark form began to struggle against the confining shield sphere.

'_I cannot keep this up for long, either he goes in the portal, or he'll break free, and if that happens, we all die' _Raider thought as he felt his reserves starting to strain.

[Alert, exotic radiation wave form detected, levels quickly approaching hazardous levels, vacate area at once] his suit computer intoned, once more stating something he already knew, thanks to his now rapidly flaring shields.

Wisely, Major Lorne had withdrawn from the area, Faith, however, refused, her concern for her mate overriding all instincts of self preservation.

"Dammit, this thing reminds me of Skix and his freakishly large reserves, I cant keep him contained and the portal open at the same time!" Raider growled, as he felt both the shield and portal loosing strength.

Suddenly, a cry of "Azarath, Metrion, Zenthos!" rang out, and a black energy burst shot forth from behind the very thankful spartan, shoving the dark form through the portal, acting swiftly, Raider released the shield, and sealed the portal, permanently.

"Very very good timing, Raven, lets go check on our 'friend', and then get me to the med bay, so I can kindly pass out from energy exhaustion" Raider said, groaning, as the effects of once more outstripping his once more impressive reserves began to hit him yet again.

Raven, nodded silently, and glided along behind the spartan.

Samus came to, finding herself staring at two armored warriors, and a woman wearing a black hooded cloak, who, were likewise staring at her armored form with, very probably, the same sense of apprehension she felt.

It was just as she barely checked reflexes hardened by countless battles that her scan visor came up, noting several systems in the armors of the two in front of her, that appeared suitable for use as upgrades, and before she could abort the trans scan, her powersuit had emitted a flash of light, and she noted some new icons on her hud, the scan visor, however, once more drew her attention, scanning the taller of the two armored warriors, noting it's reserves were running dangerously low, its natural energy reserves, not the armor's, which she noted was still more or less at full strength.

"Are you alright"

Raider started in shock, that was his next question, seeing the now obviously female armored warrior, clad in a white suit of armor, with grey accents standing, staring at him as if she expected him to pass out at any second.

And, Raider noted, just as she asked, he felt a very strong desire to do just that, pass out.

"Dammit, not again" he uttered, and then, promptly passed out, his armored body hitting the deck with an audible thump.

Unbeknownst to the Spartan, or Samus, the PED armor tech upgrade hadn't been damaged or destroyed, merely dislodged and dispersed, it re coalesced invisibly, and merged itself unseen, dormant, into the armor of the spartan, where it would remain silent and unseen, slowly integrating into the Mjolnir armor, waiting for the moment it would be desperately needed.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

1310 hours, City of Atlantis, Medical center.

-Just another day at the office-

She sat there, observing the spartan, she'd been told by the doctor who and what he was, and, just why, precisely, the two women who now sat on the other side of the bed that held his slumbering form were glaring at her.

They felt threatened by her, and not in the sense of a physical threat, they regarded her as a threat to their…triumvirate, the 3 of them were life mates, and the slayer and old one saw her as a threat to that.

Samus had been most surprised to see who she now knew as a slayer and an old one, picking up, and moving with an almost reverent level of care, the slumbering form of the spartan, with a deceptive ease, as she now knew them, the spartan included, to be wearing almost half a ton of armor.

Samus was even more surprised that no one had asked her to relinquish her weapons, or even escort her to a detention cell, evidently these 'Wraith' were enough of a concern that they had immediately asked her if she wouldn't mind helping out with the security sweep.

"Ugh, what happened?" the spartan announced his return to consciousness.

"You expended too much power, again, and passed out as a result, again, and managed to stop a major league badguy before they could gain a foot hold" Slayer(its Faith, for those who weren't paying attention) said.

"Wait, back up, how long was I out?" the spartan inquired, sounding somewhat confused.

"4 hours" Blue(aka Illyria) replied.

"Ok, something's not right, usually out cold for at least 24 hours when I push myself like that" the Spartan replied, sounding not the least bit surprised by this.

"Perhaps, when my suit scanned and integrated some upgrades based off your armor, the energy burst that accompanied this might have had something to do with your shortened recovery period?" Samus asked, announcing her presence to the spartan.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

Recognizing the voice, Samus instantly felt at ease, very few people could put her that at ease with their presence alone like that.

"You should, saved your ass from a certain dimension hopping mad scientist a few years back" Samus replied, curious as to why he didn't recognize her, as only she used armor like the luminoth light suit, which she'd had when she rescued the Spartan, and once more found herself in possession of, due to the earlier explosion having damaged the PED suit, it had resulted in a reversion to the earlier lightsuit.

"This is Tayla, Spartan, Rising star reports they just had an attempted boarding, their shield, has remained un penetrated, the assailants are the same ones who took McKay and Jackson, they are headed here"

"Copy that" Raider replied over his suit's radio.

Getting up off the medical bed, Raider grabbed his rifle, and paused, considering Samus.

"I may not remember you, but, we could use the help" Raider stated.

"I'm in" Samus replied without hesitation.

-"This is Major Lorne, they've breached the shield, and are headed for the Zpm room!"-

"Lets move" Raider growled, unbeknownst to him, the life mating ceremony had not only led to an accelerated healing, increase in reserves, and heightened senses, but had also bestowed instincts from not only the slayer essence within Faith, but the instincts of Illyria, hence, his unusually aggressive posture and behavior.

They made record time, entering the zpm room just as the uninvited guests appeared, they were after the freshly initialized Zpms from the Rising star.

"We are here for the Zpms, stand aside" intoned the being in the lead.

"Sorry, those are our zpms, a gift to Atlantis from our city ship, you're not getting them, stand down" Raider barked.

-"Cyber(aka Cameron Philips), we're in position for a cross fire move"- Cameron radioed.

-"Spartan, Copy that, hold position, wait for my signal"- Raider replied over his radio.

Raider warily eyed the weapons the aliens were pointing at them, his own rifle at the ready, he noted that his suit's own scan visor had determined that the weapons posed little threat, assuming the team kept their suit's shields up, he noted out of the corner of his eye, that Samus had cloaked.

Any other time and place, he'd have pulled a Faith and gone 'What the fuck', but, he quickly reined in the impulse.

And promptly felt his jaw bottom out at the next statement the alien issued.

"Why do you stand against us, Warrior of the Light? Is it not your sworn duty to stand with us?"

From the way their mate had stiffened at that statement, Faith and Illyria knew something was wrong.

"I've Long ago forsaken that calling, as it's left me with nothing but pain, sadness, and had left me very much alone, you are not welcome or wanted here for your actions, leave now, while I permit it!" Raider growled, unknowingly flaring long dormant power, which caused his armor to glow golden, before once more fading to its normal grey and white coloration.

-"This is Kennedy, fire teams 1 through 4 on your position in 30 seconds, need any help?"- Raider grinned as he heard this come over his suit's radio.

-"This is Cyber, that might be a good idea, as our 'friends' seem disinclined to do this the easy way, that, and they seem intent on provoking Spartan, always a stupid move, that is"- was the reply.

-"Indeed, copy that, on your position right now"-

Raider heard the exchange on his suit's radio, and knew precisely how right Cameron's statement was, and truth be told, the only reason he hadn't yet issued a display of his power was due to the extreme respect he held for the ancients and their magnificent city, a respect the city itself had been more than willing to return tenfold.

"Rising star, lock onto our 'guests', and kindly beam them into Atlantis' own brig, please" Raider said over his suit's radio.

-"Hicks here, copy that"- came the response.

And, with that, a flash of white light, and Atlantis sent it's gratified thanks, as well as activating said brig.

-"Hicks here, Sending the latest databurst from the SGC for your review"-

"Copy, send the zpm/device and 3 spare zpms to earth" Raider replied.

-"Copy, we'll be awaiting your return, Rising Star out"-

Sunday, January 18, 2009

1700 hours, Rising Star, in orbit above Atlantis

-And Away we go!-

"Ok, it's a navigation system, how's it work, and how do I use it to get us from point A to point B, WITHOUT the obligatory missed turns?!" Dawn asked, staring at the display screen.

The rest of the personnel in the control room snickered, knowing what was coming.

"Bugs Bunny anyone?" Faith asked.

Dead silence.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that…" John muttered, shaking his head, while barely containing the laughter that was just dying to burst out.

"Transdrive systems online, and ready for departure" Gemini intoned, as her holo form faded into view.

"So, how do I use it?" Dawn asked.

"According to the computer, just focus on the destination, the city's computers will handle the rest".

"Alright, lets see what's out there" McKain said, and both Raider and Dawn nodded in agreement, and Dawn headed down one level, and sat in the control chair, and brought the Transdrive online.

"And away we go!" Dawn whooped.

With that, the City known as the Rising Star, faded from view, on its way to beginning a fantastic adventure.

End of the Stargate saga.

To be continued in the Evangelion saga.

**:Page 91-98:**


	12. post story arc rambles

One of the questions I was asked, by someone I asked to beta, was, why post a multi series crossover under one particular category, in this case, stargate sg-1.

My answer? Because the first arc of the storyline takes place there.

Another question, was why a chapter for disclaimers and notes?

My answer? To get the legalities and whatnot out of the way, and give you, the reader, more story, and less of that legal crap.

One other question, was what inspired the story.

My answer? I truly do not know, it's several things, none of which is the sole reason.

Why write this story? To be honest, it's fun, fulfilling, and, I get to share it with you, the reader.

All I ask, in return, is that the story is read. I don't care how many reviews I get, what I do care about, is that it's at least read.

As long as that happens, I'm happy.


	13. a note to all readerswriters here

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

I, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that (I believe) violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in it's original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be looseing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please fell free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

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arashiXnoXkami

XRaiderV1


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